JUN 4 1900 



REPOKT OF THE COMMITTEE. 249 



NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY 



NOETHTJMBERLAIS^D, DrRHAM, AND NEWCASTLE- 

 IJPON-TYNE. 



ANNUAL MEETING, 14th JULY, 1897. 



EEPORT OF THE COMMITTEE FOE 1896-97. 



At the end of another financial year the Committee of the Natural 

 History Society have to report that the work of the Society has 

 gone on quietly and with the usual regularity. The most im- 

 portant item in the deliberations of the Committee has been the 

 proposal to so alter and enlarge the Eules of the Society that a 

 Class of Associates may be admitted, who, at a reduced fee, 

 would have the privilege and benefit of consulting the collections 

 of the Society. Though it cannot be expected that the admis- 

 si&^-^f Associates at a reduced rate of subscription will much 

 increase the funds of the Society, yet if it tends to promote the 

 study of Natural History in the district, one of the objects and 

 aims of the Society will be attained. This proposed enlargement 

 of the Rules of the Society will be more fully detailed in a sub- 

 sequent paragraph. 



The attendance at the Museum has been much the same as in 

 past years, the state of the weather during the public holidays 

 influencing the attendance at those times in a most remarkable 

 manner. But it may be mentioned here that many young people 

 have visited the Museum for the purpose of studying the inter- 

 esting groups of Birds in the Central Room ; among these have 

 been a number of the Art Students of the College of Science, to 



