REPORT OF THE COUNCIL. 



As the primary subject of their Report, the Council would 

 state the extent of their progress towards fulfilling the pledge 

 made by their predecessors at the last Anniversary — " That 

 a most rigid examination of the expenditure should be en- 

 tered into with a full determination to reduce it to the lowest 

 possible scale consistent with the efficient carrying on of 

 the Society's objects " 



Annexed to the Report of the Auditors will be found a 

 detailed statement of the receipts and expenditure of the 

 Society from January to December 1838. The Council 

 would, however, carry the attention of the Meeting to finan- 

 cial ai-rangements, which could not, owing to the time of their 

 taking effect, find a place in that document. It is necessary 

 to do this, in order that it may be perceived how much has 

 been attempted and effected in the reduction of the Society's 

 permanent expenditure between the last and the pi'esent 

 Annual Meeting. 



The Council would therefore briefly state, that during the 

 last year the duties of Assistant Zoological Secretary have 

 been annexed to those of the Curator at the Museum ; a 

 superior Clerk of the Works will execute in great measure 

 the functions of Architect as well as of Head Carpenter ; an 

 Assistant Curator of the Museum is dispensed with ; and 

 the number of Keepers at the Gardens has been diminished 

 by one ; the cultivation of the Gardens, repair of walks and 

 yards, &c. have become a matter of contract ; a residence on 

 the Society's premises has been provided for the Superin- 

 tendent, by which arrangement a saving of his former allow- 

 ance for rent (diminished by the value of coals and candles 

 now supplied to him) is realized. Of the above reductions, 

 those which arise from the abolition of offices could not, for 

 obvious reasons, take effect until some months after the Coun- 

 cil had decided that they should be made. At the present 



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