238 



most heartily for the high compHment you have paid me, and I 

 take this opportunity of assuring you that as I have tried in the 

 past so I will endeavour in the futui'e, to do all in my power to 

 promote the usefulness and welfare of this Society. In promising 

 this, however, I must ask you to assist me in these objects and I 

 have no doubt that the loyal support 3'^ou haA^e given me since the 

 formation of this Club will be accorded me during; the ensuina; 

 twelve months. 



Gentlemen, in addressing you this evening it is my intention 

 to recall to 3'-our memories the chief events of interest in con- 

 nection with the Clul) since the last Annual Meeting, and, 

 s3condly, to endeavour to point out to you the almost limitless 

 ground for amusement and really solid scientific work in connec- 

 tion with the study of Natural History which our island home 

 affords. 



Since our last Annual Assembly on the 8th August, 1892, 

 there have been thirteen ordinary and one special meeting, all of 

 which have been well attended, and I thinlc the Club may con- 

 gratulate itself upon the fact that unlike other societies and also 

 institutions in this Colony, it has never failed to hold a meeting 

 whenever one has been called, through the non-attendance of 

 Members. There is only one kind of meeting which Members 

 seem disinclined to attend, and that is a business meeting. 

 Although this is I'egrettable, taken from the point of view that 

 Members should be interested in the business of the Club, it is 

 also one which speaks volumes for the confidence v/hich the Club 

 places in its Officers. 



Since our last Annual Meeting we have changed our head 

 quarters. During the first year of our existence as a Club we 

 met in the Ail Saints' School-house, kindly lent us by the Rev. 

 L. A. Taitt, to whose generosity I would again express the grate- 

 ful indebtedness of the Club. On the completion of the 

 Victoria Institute, the Club appointed a Committee to meet the 

 Institute Committee to arrange about holding our meetings in 

 this Lecture Hall. The Committee was moderately successful in 

 its negociations, and the result is that we are here ; but it is 

 still an open question whether it would not be more desirable 

 that the Club should have premises which would be entirely 

 under its own control. Probably this is a point which we shall 

 have to decide in the near future. 



The meetings of the Club have been generally of a most at- 

 tractive character and the number of exhibits on these occasions 

 is evidence that the members are constantly on the look out for 

 objects of interest. One of the most curious of these was a cen- 

 tipede, caught by. Mr. Charles Libert, engaged in the protection of 

 its young. The fact was an entirely new one in the known life 



