Proceedings. CXXXvil 
The President’s Address. 
Lapies and GENTLEMEN, 
It comes to my turn as the latest of your Presidents 
to pass in review the work of this Club during the twenty-eighth 
year of its existence. 
It is not my good fortune to have no deaths to record, for two 
members have passed away—Major F. OC. S. Dyer and J. W. 
Justican. The total number of members on our roll is 237. 
There have been 82 new members elected, and 15 old members 
have resigned, showing a gain of 15 members. Thirteen ladies 
have joined our ranks since our resolution admitting ladies to 
our membership. One lady has become a regular contributor to 
the Photographic Album, and two or three ladies exhibited at 
the Annual Soirée, notably Miss Gladys Parsons, whose diligence 
brought together a valuable collection of shells of land and 
freshwater Gasteropoda. This little lady, though wne fille du 
régiment, is not yet strictly speaking a member. I trust that in 
the coming year our lady members will be less backward in 
contributing to the work of our Society. 
Balance-sheet.—It is an untoward fact that the balance on the 
General Account comes out on the wrong side this year. Iam 
not aware if this has occurred before; it has certainly not 
occurred since January 7th, 1894, when the balance to the good 
was £59. 
Now, I am departing somewhat from the practice of my 
predecessors in reviewing the year’s work, for I am going to 
recall the various events in continuous chronological order. I 
do this because it has-occurred to me that by making our doings 
once more, as it were, pass in regular procession before us, I 
_ may be able to infuse into my Address something of the warmth 
_ and colour of an active year. 
The first meeting of all was in January, when an Anthropo- 
logical Conversational Meeting was held under the direction of 
Mr. Lovett. 
February 16th, 1897.—This was the first occasion on which I 
_ had the honour to preside over your deliberations. On this. 
occasion Mr. Mennell showed some remarkably fine specimens 
_ of fluorspar crystals from Weardale. 
__ Mr. Campbell-Bayard then read the Report of the Meteoro- 
logical Sub-Committee for 1896. The number of stations in 
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