492 HIGHLAND AND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



meetings of committees as from meetings of the Directors ; 

 and that every convener of a committee should be Hable in 

 the penalty of five shillings on his failing to make his 

 report at the time appointed for so doing. Up to 1842 the 

 fines were collected annually, but in 1843 it was resolved to 

 collect them twice a year, in order to keep the liabilities 

 better in recollection. In 1846 the system of fines was 

 entirely abolished. 



The subject of paying the travelling expenses of the 

 Directors was under the consideration of a Special Com- 

 mittee in January 1871. That Committee recommended 

 that the Board should authorise the Secretary to pay the 

 railway return fare of all such Directors as should claim it 

 for the days they had attended the Directors' meetings. 

 The Board did not, however, approve of the recommendation. 



With the view of affording to all its members who could 

 convenientlyattend facilities for obtaining information on the 

 Society's business, and to enable them to aid in promoting 

 its objects, the Directors resolved in 1841 that there should 

 be stated monthly meetings at the Museum, when papers 

 would be read and subjects discussed having relation to 

 agriculture and the other objects of the Society. The first 

 of these meetings was held on the evening of Wednesday 

 the 1st of December 1 841, at 8 o'clock. From their insti- 

 tution until June 1849 the proceedings at the monthly 

 meetings were generally confined to reading such papers as 

 were communicated, and to such observations upon them 

 as any member present might feel inclined to offer. Many 

 facts of practical value were announced in these discussions, 

 but, for the most part, in an unconnected manner. The 

 discussion was almost necessarily desultory, none of the 

 speakers proposing to deal with a subject as a whole, but 

 contented himself with a few observations on particular 

 parts or branches. On the other hand, the subjects were 

 frequently not such as were best suited for this kind of 

 discussion, and none of the gentlemen who came to the 

 meetings felt themselves especially called upon to collect 

 together and arrange the facts connected with the 



