Transactions. 41 



Secretary's Report. 



The Secretary (Mr J. Rutherford) submitted the following 

 report : — This being our annual meeting, it will now be my duty 

 to lay before you a resume of our proceedings during the last 

 twelve months. Eight years have now nearly passed since the 

 present Society was instituted, and it is very gratifying to find 

 that the interest taken in the work — not only by its members, 

 but by the general public — still continues. Scarcely a week 

 passes ^vithout my being told by some one outside the Society 

 that they " read with much interest the reports of our Society's 

 meetings which appear from time to time in our local news- 

 papers." I have little hesitation in saying that these excellent 

 reports have been in a great degree instrumental in increasing 

 our popularity, prosperity, and usefulness. At the beginning of 

 the Session we had a membership of 197. During the Session 27 

 new members have been added ; 20 from various causes have 

 ceased to be members ; 4 gentlemen have taken advantage of the 

 new rule which was introduced during the Session constituting 

 life members ; and the roll now stands — Life members, 4 ; 

 honorary and coiTesponding members, 1 5 ; ordinary members, 

 185 — making a total of 204, being an increase of 7 during the 

 Session. We have had the usual seven monthly Winter Meetings 

 and five Summer Field Meetings. The average attendance at the 

 Winter Meetings was 31'5, as against 34 in the preceding year; 

 the average attendance at the Field Meetings was 20*4, as against 

 26 in the previous year. Although these figures show a slight 

 decrease in the attendance at our meetings during the past 

 Session, yet when we consider that we have had three Special 

 Meetings, all well attended, we have no reason to doubt that 

 the interest hitherto manifested in the work of the Society has 

 in any way fallen off. 



I regret to tell you that during the last Session we have lost 

 from our locality our most distinguished coleopterist, of world- 

 wide reputation, who has removed to Southampton. I refer to 

 Dr Sharp, whose pleasing disposition and kindly manner endeared 

 him to all who had the honour and pleasure of his acquaintance. 

 At our monthly Winter Meetings fourteen papers were read, 

 being the same number as the preceding year, and some of which 

 were of a high-class nature. During the Session we have had 

 six Committee Meetings, with an average attendance of 8-6. A 



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