70 



ANNUAL ADDRESS TO THE MEMBERS 



1 OF THE 



mxih ITonboiT (Entomological anb llatural ^listoru 



,$^ocictn. 



By B. H. Smith, B.A., F.E.S. 

 Read January 28th, 1915. 



GENTLEMEN,— I feel it my duty to make some apology 

 and explanation for the meagreness and brevity of the 

 Annual Address this year. For the past twelve months 

 1 have had the honour of being the President of your Society, 

 an honour I appreciate very highly ; but since the end of last 

 July and the commencement of the war, other and graver matters 

 have claimed the whole of my time and energies, so much so 

 that it has been a matter of physical impossibility to prepare an 

 address worthy of this Society and those given by ray predecessors. 

 The same reason must be my excuse for my frequent absences 

 from our meetings daring the autumn. I trust, therefore, that 

 you will overlook my shortcomings, and will not put down to 

 remissness and negligence what, I assure you, has been due 

 simply and wholly to other obligations which have exhausted my 

 whole time and energies. I may add that, as it is, I owe a grea:^ 

 debt in the preparation of the present address to our indefatigable 

 General Secretary, Mr. Stanley Edwards. 



The council's report states that our membership stands at 

 the satisfactory figure of one hundred and sixty-four ; and 

 though the activities of members in the entomological line are 

 likely to be curtailed during the present year, I think the Society 

 can look forward with confidence to a successful future. As an 

 instance of how localities are barred to collectors, I may mention 

 that I hear that the Isle of Portland is now inaccessible ow/ng 



