15 



These alterations have considerably increased the 

 expenditure of the past year, but owing to the com- 

 pleteness of the repairs, a smaller sum will be required 

 for maintenance of the buildings for some years to 

 come. 



In the course of last summer the attention of the 

 Council was directed to the " Report of the Treasury 

 Commission appointed to inquire into the Royal Dublin 

 Society, Museum of Irish Industry, Royal Hibernian 

 Academy, Royal Irish Academy, and the System of 

 Scientific Instruction in Ireland," and in consequence 

 of some of the recommendations contained in that 

 Report, your Council felt it necessary for the indepen- 

 dence of the Royal Zoological Society, to represent 

 that power should not be given to the Royal Dublin 

 Society of exercising any control over the proceedings 

 of the Zoological Society, and for that purpose Reso- 

 lutions were adopted at a Meeting of the Council, held 

 July 18th, 1863, and the statement embodying those 

 Resolutions, a copy of which is appended to this 

 Report (vide Appendix A), was forwarded to the 

 proper authorities. It is only due, however, to the 

 Royal Dublin Society to state, that the proposal to 

 exercise a supervision over the Royal Zoological 

 Society did not come from the Royal Dublin Society. 



The Council have much gratification in announcing 

 that the Lords of the Treasury have at length 

 granted to the Society the ground on the opposite side 

 of the lake, which for many years was anxiously sought 

 for by the Society, and without which the original 

 design of the Gardens was incomplete. The grant 

 was accompanied by the condition that a boundary 



