200 [Proc. BN.P.C, 



1 find the following men of note also read papers in this 

 decade, and some, like Messrs. Gray and Stewart, were very 

 prolific in this respect, namely, Robert Young, C.E., G. V. Du 

 Noyer, Canon Macllwaine, Dr. Holden, Shakespeare Wood, 

 Professor Wyville Thompson, W. J. Knowles, Dr. H. S. 

 Purdon, J. J. Murphy, Professor J. Thompson, and Joseph 

 Wright, F.G.S. 



The second decade opens with the initial steps in the pre- 

 paration to receive the British Association in 1874, and also 

 with the perpetual wail about members not paying up their 

 subscriptions in due time. I trust we have greatly improved 

 since then. 



In 1873-4 Mr. Gray and Mr. Robinson were appointed 

 official representatives of the Club to the British Association, 

 to obtain full information about the working of that Society 

 and the methods of preparing for them, so that, as far as the 

 Club w^as concerned, no stone should be left unturned to make 

 the approaching visit successful in every respect, and it is the 

 first connecting link between our Club and that great Associa- 

 tion, and our subsequent relations have always been close, 

 cordial and friendly, and I hope they will ever continue so. 



The Committee also decided to publish a " Guide to 

 Belfast " in connection with the visit of the British Associa- 

 tion in 1874, and they also resolved that 500 copies should 

 be distributed gratuitously to the non-resident members of the 

 British Association. This reference is important, as this 

 Guide was the first of its kind ever published under similar 

 conditions, and it shows how earnest were the Club's builders 

 and how willing they were to undertake gratuitously laborious 

 and almost endless work. This initial movement of publish- 

 ing Guides has been upheld ever since in every city that the 

 Association has visited, and I consider it a splendid tribute 

 of praise to our Club builders and a great recognition of their 

 far-sightedness. 



The Winter Session of 1873-4 opened on tne 19th Novem- 

 ber, when Mr. Gray read a paper on " The British Associa- 

 tion, its aims and objects." This paper was in reality Mr. 



