3. The Incidental Menagerie Expenses include 



Straw, 



Fuel, 



Water-supply, 



Police, 



Labour, 

 and various miscellaneous requisites of a minor character. 

 The cost of Straw, a liberal use of which is indispen- 

 sable to the health of the animals at all times, but espe- 

 cially in winter, amounted to £494 Os. 6d. 



Fuel, including Welsh Coal for the Engine, amounted to 

 £213 5s. 



The Water Supply from the West Middlesex Water 

 Company, and 208 large casks of sea-water for the Aqua- 

 rium, including carriage, cost £222 4*. 5d. 



The services of the Police were charged to the Society 

 at £93 9*., but the operation of an Act recently passed 

 empowers the Council to swear-in servants of the Society 

 to serve as Constables, and will enable them to effect a con- 

 siderable reduction under this head in the current year. 



The Labourers' Wages for the service of the Menagerie 

 amounted to £389 1^. Qd., and were to some extent in- 

 creased by the measure of granting a fortnight's holiday to 

 each of the Keepers consecutively, in the course of the au- 

 tumn. The Council have reason to think that this indul- 

 gence has not been unappreciated by the men, several of 

 whom have been upwards of 25 years in the service of the 

 Society. 



4. The expenditure paid for Works and General. 

 Repairs amounted to £1902 10*. ^d. Of this sum £305 65. 

 was expended in a complete reconstruction of the Re- 

 servoir, which was rendered unavoidable by the stipulations 

 under which the West Middlesex Water Company undertook 

 to lay down a sub-main for the supply of the Establishment, 

 in the event of any emergency requiring it, as well as by 

 considerations of a sanitary nature. The accumulation of 

 decayed vegetable matter and other impurities in the ori- 

 ginal reservoir, which had only been constructed with a 

 bottom of puddled clay, had for several years past given a 

 turbid character to the water, which the Council could not 

 but regard as far from wholesome, and may possibly have 

 generated some of the attacks of disease which have oc- 

 curred at various periods, and have baffled all other con- 

 jecture as to their origin. 



