914 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVII. 



The above account shows that we have a useful staff available at a 

 Jow cost to the Society, yet we have not sufficient funds to provide salaries 

 and expenses for much beyond three months. An appeal is being sent out to 

 members asking them to forget the many calls made on their purses and only to 

 remember the need of the Survey, the good work it has done, the good work 

 which remains to be done, and the urgency of the need. The need was mentioned 

 to an old Life member of the Society who immediately responded with a cheque 

 for Rs. 150. That is the kind of response we want made to our appeal. Unfor- 

 tunately we cannot look to Government for financial help, though it is work for 

 the good of India we are doing. During the late session of the Indian Legisla- 

 tive Assembly at Delhi the Secretary-in-charge of Education paid a tribute to 

 the work done by this Society, work, he said, which in many instances ought to 

 be undertakeji by Government, yet he regretted it was not possible to ask the 

 Assembly to vote any money grant to the Society or for its work. Perhaps it 

 may be possible when the Finance Member has not to budget for a deficit of 

 Eighteen Crores, but if we wait for that happy day we shall never be able to 

 finish the Mammal Survey in time for the new volume. 



Another disappointment has been the holding up of the scheme to move the 

 exhibit part of the Society's collection to the Prince of Wales Museum. The 

 Members having agreed to the conditions laid down by the Committee of the 

 Society on the one side and the Trustees of the Prince of Wales Museum on the 

 other, no time was lost by our Curator and his staff in preparing plans for the 

 best utilisation of the very small space placed at our disposal. The pivot of the 

 scheme was, however, money. The Society had and has no money for the pur- 

 poses of a public Museum. In order that more space may be available for the 

 research collections of the Society, the Committee were wiUing to let the pubUc 

 have the benefit of the Society's Natural History Exhibits and the services of 

 their trained staff provided the money was found for the purpose. The Museum 

 Trustees stated that all they could do was to prowde the room — unfortunately 

 even at the very beginning this is found to be too small — and the Bombay 

 Government was asked by both parties to provide a minimum annual grant of Rs. 

 30,000 for the Natural History Section of the Museum. Owing to financial or 

 other difficulties this grant has not been forthcoming and until it is there can , 

 be no move on our part. Fortunately the Bombay Government recognises the 

 need of a Natural History Museum which can be visited by the pubhc, and we 

 have every hope that it will not be very long before payment is made. 



In the meantime our Staff" is obtaining estimates, plans and information which 

 will be of use when we are able to go on with the scheme. At present we are all 

 very hazy as regards estimates. The Honorary Secretary thought that Rs. 10,000 

 per annum would meet the Government contribution to the pay of the Museum 

 Staff and that with the balance of Rs. 20,000, good progress in the way of pro- 

 viding show cases could be made each year. If it is true that the estimate for 

 show cases for the Archaeological Section of the Museum is well over a lakh of 

 Rupees, our progress will be spread over a great many years and the real Natural 

 History Museum Building will be ready before we have completed more than the 

 Mammal Section. 



The suggestion put before the Public of Bombay by the Chairman of the Prince 

 of Wales Museum is hopeful for the early commencement of a building designed 

 to be a Natural History Museum. Roughly the scheme is that the pressing 

 demand in Bombay for business accommodation should be utilised to pay for 

 the new Museum buildings and for their eventual endowment. A loan would be 

 raised on the security of the land and buildings. With the proceeds of the loan 

 the Museum buildings would be erected, but these would be let out for varying 

 terms of years as offices. Gradually, as the sinking fund worked off the loan, 

 more and more of the buildings would be put to their proper use until finally 

 only a number of shops on the ground floor would be left, providing from their 



