220 Timehri. 
its friendly attention, and balata was mainly introduced to the world in connec- 
tion with the exhibitions of the Society. It is now prepared to live up to the 
traditions of the past and to advocate fearlessly every progressive movement 
in the colony. But even if the prophecies and proposals of the pessimists had 
been realised and the Society had last year abandoned its great ambitions ~ 
and sunk to the position of a mere lending library and reading room, it could 
still have made with confidence the parting request of that great actor on the 
world’s stage, the Emperor Augustus—Vos Plaudite ! 
