of Fellows, is rapidly diminishing ; and during the present 

 year there has as yet been no ground for supposing that 

 this most desirable circumstance will not continue to be 

 realized. 



In consequence of a careful investigation of the revenues 

 and prospects of the Society by a Special Committee of 

 Receipt and Expenditure, the Council are able to report 

 that, — 



In the Museum Department a reduction of one perma- 

 nent Servant has been found practicable, as the more effi- 

 cient discharge of the duties formerly entrusted to him is 

 secured by occasional assistance of a better description. 



The supervision and direction of the annual repairs and 

 other small works, which were formerly entrusted to the 

 Society's Architect, have been placed in the hands of the 

 Secretary ; and it is calculated that by this means a reduc- 

 tion of the ordinary expenditure, to the amount of £100 or 

 £120 a-year, will be effected. 



Since the death of Mr. Bompas, which the Council re- 

 gret to state occurred within four months after the last 

 Anniversary, the duties of the Assistant Secretary have also 

 been fulfilled by the Secretary and the Accountant, and it 

 is not the present intention of the Council to appoint a 

 successor. The salary attached to that office at the time 

 of Mr. Bompas's death was £200 a-year. 



The effect of these arrangements will therefore be a re- 

 duction of the ordinary expenditure to the amount of about 

 £350 per annum. 



SCIENTIFIC DEPARTMENT. 



1. Publications. 



The Fifth Part cf the Third Volume of the Transactions 

 has just been published and is now ready for deUvery at 

 the office. It contains the third and concluding part of 

 Professor Owen's Researches on the Dinornis and other 

 large extinct Birds of New Zealand, with four elaborate 

 Plates by Mr. Erxleben, and a paper by Mr. Gould on a 

 second species of Apteryx, with a coloured Plate by Mr. 



