REPOKT OF THE COUNCIL 3 



especially in its device for changing the type, and already 

 it has proved very useful in both correspondence and label- 

 writing. 



The Council also decided, on the recommendation of the 

 House Committee, to devote a portion of this fund to the 

 much-needed repair and re-decoration of the Museum 

 building, the interior of which has not been decorated 

 since it was done originally. The repairs needed were 

 chiefly to the ridge-tiles on the roof, to the roof-lights, 

 and to the pointing of some of the masonry. Drip- 

 mouldings have also been fixed on many of the windows 

 to prevent rain from being blown through, and the roof of 

 the boiler house has been put in repair. The railings and 

 outside woodwork are being repainted and the interior re- 

 decorated throughout. The work, or at least the greater 

 part of it, would have been done long ago had funds been 

 available, and the apparent impossibility of finding the 

 means for it has been a source of increasing anxiety to the 

 Council. 



A considerable improvement has been brought about in the 

 grounds on the west side of the building. The pond, which 

 was leaking badly, has been cleaned out and re-cemented. 

 Beds have been made along the west wall ; the rockery and 

 the other ground near it have been cleaned, a number of 

 shrubs and small trees planted, and the paths put into good 

 order for the first time. 



An issue of the Transactions (New Series, vol. iii., part 2) 

 was published during the year, and the concluding part of the 

 same volume is now almost complete. The Council are 

 pleased to find that the high standard of the papers is still 

 fully maintained. Many of them, naturally, are of interest 

 mainly to specialists, but this is inevitably the case with 

 original work, the only work that a scientific society is 

 justified in publishing. The best thanks of the Society are 

 due to the President, who generously came forward to enable 

 a valuable paper on local geology to be published, which was 



