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Correspondence, Notes , etc.



reason that the existing Council, who naturally know more of the inner

workings of the Society than the other members, are best suited to

recommend the two members who are to take the place of those retiring.

This is a plan that is adopted by the Zoological and most other societies

with perfect success.


It is obvious that a society like ours must be more or less governed

by a few. It could not be worked successfully otherwise. We are perfectly

certain that any member who takes a keen interest in the Society and the

Magazine, and who has their best interest at heart , will have no difficulty

whatever in being nominated to serve on the Council.


We entirely fail to see that the Society is any more oligarchic now

than in the days when Mr. Fillmer practically ran it himself! Every

member has a right to use the Magazine, so long as he writes upon suitable

subjects; in fact it is difficult to persuade enough members to write—they

will leave the writing to a few. But it is not the fault of the few if their

names appear often. With the coloured plates again, a notice has been

inserted requesting members to suggest subjects; whereas formerly the

matter was almost entirely left to the Executive Committee.


The chief question to consider is whether the Society and Magazine

are a success under the present regime ; and we venture to think that all

but a few malcontents are satisfied with it. We ask our members to decide

for themselves as to whether the Magazine and the Society are any worse

off now, ■when it is said to be in the hands of a clique, than it was in the

days of its “original democratic constitution.”


What has happened since those days ? In 1899 the April and May

issues consisted of twelve pages only, “ less than ever before since the first

year of the Society,” as Mr. Fillmer remarked (Vol. V. p. 140). In the

volume for 1900 he evidently believed that the days of the Societj r were

numbered if the Magazine were to continue in its present course, for he

strongly advocated the inclusion in its scope of Mammals, Reptiles, Fishes,

and Canaries. Needless to say the majority of the members strongly

objected to such a change, for they believed that there were still many

aviculturists, who had never heard of the Society, who would readily join

when the Magazine became better known, and that it would some day

become an important Society with a Magazine that the members might

well be proud of. That they were justified in this belief is proved by the

fact that when Mr. Fillmer left the Society there were only 254 members,

whereas there are now over 400.


I11 Volume VII. Mr. Fillmer's name does not appear at all in the list

of contributors, although it had been conspicuous in all former volumes.

The Report of the Council, published at the end of that volume, announced

that Mr. Fillmer had entirely severed his connection with the Society.

This was at a time when the Society and its Magazine were at a low ebb,



