Annual Meeting. 39 



knowledge, more especially as a well-known Irish botanist, was 

 always freely placed at the disposal of the Society and its friends. 

 He was appointed assistant to the late Mr. William Darragh in 

 1880, and succeeded him as curator in 1891. For a considerable 

 time it has been felt that the valuable collections of the Society 

 were not made use of as they might be by the citizens of Belfast, 

 and the propriety of offering the contents of the Museum to the 

 City Corporation has been often under discussion. Your Council 

 took the subject again into consideration last autumn, and, after 

 much deliberation, formulated a resolution empowering the 

 transference of the Society's collections on loan to the City 

 Corporation. This resolution was presented to a special meeting 

 of the members, numbering thirty, held on 22nd February, 1907, 

 and, on the proposal of the President, seconded by the Rev. 

 Thomas Hamilton, was passed with one dissentient. On the 8th 

 March a deputation of the Society, including the President, Rev. 

 Dr. Hamilton, Professor Symington, William Swanston, Robert 

 Patterson, and the Hon Secretary, attended the meeting of the 

 Library and Technical Instruction Committee, presided 

 over by Alderman Sir James Henderson, D.L., and offered the 

 collections to the Corporation on the terms of the Society's 

 resolution, and negotiations are still pending. Your Council 

 noted with much gratification that your President recently received 

 the signal honour from the Royal University of the honorary 

 degree LL.D." 



Mr. John Horner presented the financial statement, which was 

 of a satisfactory character. 



The President, in moving the adoption of the report, said 

 that the balance-sheet showed that the society was quite solvent. 

 The most important matter that had come before the Council 

 during the past year was the proposal to transfer their valuable 

 collections to the custody of the municipal authority. Such 

 collections, through the evolution of municipal government, 

 should more properly be in the care of municipal authorities than 

 of private societies. In the hands of the Corporation the collec- 

 tions would probably be made more use of by the young people 



