CORBESPONDING SOCIETIES. 489 



The Chairman : I should like to say it is the desire of the Corre- 

 sponding Societies Committee to take the general sense of the Conference 

 on this subject. There is no doubt that the proposal made by Mr. Cole 

 is a very important one, but it requires to be worked out, and worked 

 out with far greater detail than I think is possible in the jDresent dis- 

 cussion. It would be necessary, in the first place, to know the limits of 

 the county councils, for these do not cover the whole of the county, 

 seeing that the county includes County Boroughs. Then the funds 

 required would have to be considered. The Government's money, the 

 ' whisky money,' might be devoted to purposes not strictly educa- 

 tional, and we should also want to know the way in which the boundaries 

 of the local Societies would be involved. If the principle meets with the 

 approval of the Conference, it might be thought well to refer the whole 

 matter to the Committee, which would consider it in London and take 

 into account all those matters which have been suggested this afternoon. 

 Of course we are quite in the hands of the Delegates, and are prepared 

 to welcome any other suggestion ; but, speaking on behalf of the Com- 

 mittee, they will be glad to take your acceptance of the principle for 

 granted, and enter into as full a consideration of the details of the matter 

 as may be possible. 



Replying to Principal Griffiths, who asked what was meant by the 

 pi'inciple of the matter, the Chairman said : The principle that the work 

 !^hould be undertaken, and that the ways and means should be afterwards 

 considered — that we thought the work was a necessary work. That 

 seems to be the important thing to get hold of. Other things would 

 have to be dealt with by independent investigation. 



Mr. J. Hopkinson (Hertfordshire) : Allow me to give you the expe- 

 rience of the Hertfordshire Society on the question of museums. "VVe 

 endeavoured to establish a museum in connection with the Society, but 

 could not do so for want of funds. Several members of the Society 

 approached the county council. Sir John Evans especially. We got up a 

 public meeting, and then collected sufficient funds to build a small 

 museum. Lord Spencer gave us the land, and the museum is managed 

 by a board of honorary curatoi's, with one for each department. The 

 whole of the grant that we are able to get from the county council, 

 although we have very considerable influence there, seeing that many of 

 its members are members of our Society and that we have the enthusiastic 

 support of Sir John Evans, has been 300/. for the building fund, and 

 115/. per annum towards the expenses of the museum, on the condition 

 that we give free lectures on such technical subjects as come within the 

 scope of the powers for which they can devote this money. We have to 

 subscribe towards the keeping up of the museum. As to the maps, no 

 doubt they are very useful, as it enables you to see things at a glance ; 

 but I presume all these investigations are not of very much use unless 

 they are published, and it is a very much more expensive thing to pub- 

 lish maps than to publish tabular statements. We, like other Societies, 

 I suppose, frequently overdraw our banking account, and it is with the 

 greatest difficulty that we keep up our Society owing to the want of 

 funds. 



On the motion of the Hon. EoUo Russell, seconded by Mr. Stanley, 

 and supported by Principal Griffiths, the suggestions made by Mr. Cole 

 ■were referred to the Corresponding Societies Committee. 



