368 Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 



The Minutes of the last Auuual Gene:ial Meeting, and of 

 the Special General Meeting held on January 12, 1916, 

 were read and confirmed. 



The Secretary read the following Report of the Committee 

 for the past year : — 



" The Committee regret that owing to the very heavy 

 extraordinary expenditure during 1914-15 they have to 

 report a further grave decrease in the funds of the Union. 

 The accounts for the past year, which have been audited in 

 detail by Mr. T. H. Newman, show a comparatively satis- 

 factory result in so far as ordinary expenditure and receipts 

 are concerned. The total receipts in 1915 were £736 5s. 0«?. 

 as compared with £731 4s. 10c?. in the previous year, and 

 the total payments amounted to £766 85. 2d. as against 

 £811 13s. 7d. in 1914. The balance carried forward to 

 1916 was £1 17s. 5</. 



" The cost of ' The Ibis ' has been reduced from £543 

 7s. 8d. in 1914 to £505 2s. 6d. in 1915, and in no item 

 of routine expenditure has there been an increase calling 

 for remark. We have, however, to face a further very 

 heavy expenditure during 1916 on account of the Dutch 

 New Guinea Supplement and the new General Index 

 (1895-1912). On the 1st of January last we owed £268 

 Is. 6d. on account of work done for these two publications, 

 and we estimate a further expenditure of about £150 before 

 the Index is completed. 



"A certain proportion of the cost of the B. O. U. List of 

 British Birds will be recovered and a smaller proportion of 

 the cost of the General Index, but we can expect to receive 

 very little beyond such sums as the Dutch New Guinea Expe- 

 dition Committee can eventually hand over to us towards 

 the cost of the Supplement. The Secretary estimates, 

 however, that with the increase in subscriptions the Union 

 should be able to cover all expenses by 1919 and after- 

 wards always be iri a position to undertake any necessary 

 extraordinary expenditure without incurring debt. 



"The Annual Volume of ' The Ibis ' for 1915, edited by 

 Mr. W. L. Sclater, is the fifty-seventh volume, and the third 



