298 KEPOET OF THE COMMITTEE. 



a better attendance has been obtained, and much interest has 

 been shewn by those present. 



The Committee have given a free invitation to all the Chari- 

 table Institutions of the town to bring the children to the 

 Museum at any time that may be arranged with the Secretaries, 

 and many of these institutions have availed themselves of this 

 offer. The children from the Ragged School have paid frequent 

 visits, as also the children from the Northern Counties' Orphan- 

 ages, and the Prudhoe Street Mission School, etc. 



But the visitor most interested in the Museum during the 

 year has been the Rev. H. H. Higgins, M.A., of Liverpool, 

 whose name and work is so well known in connection with the 

 Free Museum of that town. This gentleman walked through 

 this Museum in an ecstacy of delightful approval and apprecia- 

 tion — the approval of one most competent to judge as well as to 

 enjoy, and it is a regret that more were not present to hear the 

 encomiums bestowed on the work he was, above most men, most 

 able to appreciate. The following words of his, written some 

 time since, should be well pondered by all those interested in 

 Museum management. He says, " The most important function 

 of a Museum is not so much to instruct, as to win and encourage 

 minds to get themselves instructed through habits of observation." 



Some months since your Committee passed a resolution that 

 the Annual Accounts should be made up. to the end of June each 

 year, in order that the Annual Meeting of the Society might be 

 held in July, in conformity with Eule III. It will thus be seen 

 that the Honorary Treasurer's Balance Sheet covers a period of 

 only eleven months, i.e., from August 4th, 1888, to June 30th, 

 1889. The Balance Sheet of the Honorary Treasurer for this 

 period shews a balance of £106 : 18 : 10, in comparison with 

 £110 : 5 : 9, the balance in hand in August last. It will be 

 evident to all by a reference to the Balance Sheet that the affairs 

 of the Society have been carried on with the strictest economy. 



The Society has lost eleven Members by resignations and 

 deaths, and twenty-seven new Members have been elected during 

 the financial year, making the total number of members at the 

 present time about 310. 



