REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE. 1 29 



Your Committee would call the attention of the members to 

 the fact that of late years applications for the use of the 

 Museum buildings for receptions and conversaziones of a 

 public or quasi-public character have been more numerous, 

 and while recognising the fact that Newcastle as a large 

 provincial town has no building so well adapted as the 

 Museum for meetings of this character, the Committee feel 

 that in the future they will have to abandon their present 

 practice of making no charge for the vise of the rooms. 

 Regulations dealing with the conditions under which the use 

 of the Museum is granted have been drawn up. 



Museum Guides. — During the last year two Guides to the 

 Museum have been printed. One is the third edition of the 

 General Guide, which is chiefly enquired for and purchased 

 by visitors, and of which about three to four hundred are sold 

 annually. The other is an Index Guide to the Hancock 

 Collection of British Birds, and forms an authentic register of 

 that collection. It is purchased chiefly by persons specially 

 interested in ornithology and from distant parts of the 

 country. 



Hancock Prize Award for 1899. — Only three essays 

 were sent in for the Hancock Prize competition, which had 

 been fully advertised as usual in the local papers. The 

 Rev. Canon Tristram and the Rev. Canon Norman again 

 undertook the duty of examining the essays. The Examiners 

 reported that the best essay was sent by Mr. F. W. Ritson, 

 viz., " A Ramble round Allendale District." They also 

 strongly recommended Miss Minton-Senhouse's essay on 

 "Some Fruits of the more common Wild Flowers." The 

 Committee determined that the First Prize should be awarded 

 to Mr. Ritson, and that a prize of the value of ^Qz should be 

 given to Miss Minton-Senhouse, with the information that if 

 her essay had been written more in accordance with the 

 conditions advertised by the Committee it would have re- 

 ceived a more favourable commendation by the Examiners. 

 Mr. Ritson again made a selection of books on scientific 



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