GENERAL TREASURER'S REPORT xxvii 



of policy. A chart which I have caused to be prepared shows that from 

 1919 (and in fact earlier) initiation rather than quasi-permanent endowment 

 was actually the object of the larger proportion of our grants ; but in 1931 

 the sum devoted to quasi-permanent endowment for the first time 

 exceeded that of other grants, and this practice has continued each year 

 since that date. There seems to be a good case for separate endowment 

 of such quasi-permanent research committees, for they are undoubtedly 

 doing excellent work. 



I have now proposed, and the Council has recommended, that the 

 Contingency Fund should be maintained at a sum of about ^(^2,000, 

 except in any year when receipts should be abnormally low, and, 

 further, that inasmuch as the existing Contingency Fund is earmarked 

 for grants in aid of research, any excess of income over expenditure 

 on general account should be used for the creation of a second fund 

 for contingencies not connected with such grants. 



The Herbert Spencer Trust was wound up during the past year, and 

 the Spencer Bequest to the Association amounted in aggregate to ^1,241, 

 as stated in the Report of the Council to the General Committee, par. VIII. 

 In that report it is indicated that a sum of ;(J5oo has been definitely 

 allocated, and the accounts herewith show that a part has been spent, 

 for purposes connected with Down House, while a sum of £100 was 

 voted contingently for another purpose during the ensuing financial year. 

 The will prescribed the expenditure of the whole bequest within five 

 years of the winding-up of the trust, that is to say, by November 1941. 

 The purposes for which the bequest may be expended give the Council 

 a wide discretion, and for the moment I do not propose to make any 

 definite recommendation as to the disposal of the balance. 



On the incorporation of the British Science Guild into the British 

 Association, a capital sum of £2>AZ'^ was handed over to the Association, 

 and will yield an annual income of about ;(^ioo. Life Fellows of the Guild 

 were admitted to life membership of the Association without further pay- 

 ment ; but life members of the Guild were offered life membership of 

 the Association on payment of the difference of fee {£^ los.), with the result 

 that our life membership fund has been augmented by the sum of ^()g. 

 We assume the maintenance of the Norman Lockyer and Alexander 

 Pedler Lectures, which were founded by the Guild ; and the fees and other 

 charges in connection with these, excluding printing, are estimated to 

 amount to about ^1$. 



Lastly, I have gratefully to acknowledge the gift of ;£25c from Mr. G. 

 Radford Mather, a life member since 1901, for the purpose of establishing 

 a Triennial Lecture on Recent Advances in Science and their relation to 

 the Welfare of the Community. 



P. G. H. BOSWELL, 



General Treasurer, 



b 2 



