144 



[Proc. B.N.F.C., 



better and more practical training to the minds and hands of 

 your people. 



I am well assured also that the independent spirit of 

 self-help which has distinguished your past will not be want- 

 ing in the future. I share in your legitimate pride at the 

 position which Belfast has won among the cities of my 

 Empire; and I pray that, by the Divine blessing upon your 

 varied labours, the future of this great city, of the important 

 towns in its neighbourhood, and of the wide district of 

 country which is represented here to-day, may be one of ever- 

 increasing progress and prosperity. 



EQUIPMENT OF QUEEN'S COLLEGE, BELFAST. 



The Committee of the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club — 

 an organisation for Field work and research in the Natural 

 History of the North of Ireland, having over 350 members — 

 desire to call the attention of the Government to the pressing 

 need there is for increased endowments and additional build- 

 ings at Queen's College, Belfast. Many departments of 

 Natural and Physical Science there are seriously crippled by 

 want of funds and additional teachers, but it is with the 

 Natural History department that this Committee is chiefly 

 concerned. It is a physical and mental impossibility for any 

 one man to adequately instruct large classes in Botany and 

 Geology and Zoology and at the same time act as Curator of 

 the valuable Museum housed in the College. Professor 

 Huxley pointed this out in 1870, and if he considered it 

 impracticable then, how much more impossible is it now, when 

 every year brings important discoveries and advances in each 

 of these widely divergent subjects. The Committee would 

 respectfully urge that a Chair should be established for each 

 of these subjects at the earliest possible moment. 



Another urgent need is a Laboratory, where practical 

 Biology and original research could be carried on. At 

 present there is no provision for research in Natural Science 



