Annual Meeting. 23 



Library and Technical Instruction Committee recommending the 

 striking of a minimum rate of -§d. in the £1. That resolution 

 would give new life to the negotiations. They sincerely 

 hoped it would be for the benefit of the public at large as 

 well as of the members of the Society, and that the arrangements 

 would be carried out in a manner creditable to all concerned. In 

 conclusion, he had to thank the members of the Society for the 

 honour they had paid him by allowing him to be President for a 

 second year. 



Rev. Dr. Hamilton, in seconding, said it seemed to him that 

 the second year of their present President's office had been, if 

 possible, more useful and more important than its predecessor. 

 They had all heard the report of the ordinary proceedings of the 

 Society during the winter, and he thought that these proceedings 

 had been in keeping with their past history, and had reflected 

 credit and honour upon that old association. It had happened 

 before now that the good wine had been kept to the last, and he 

 thought that since their annual report was drafted and passed 

 through the Council an event had occurred which transcended in 

 importance anything which their Hon. Secretary had been able to 

 chronicle during any year of the Society's history. That day's 

 morning papers had told them of the action of the City Council 

 on the previous day with regard to taking over the collection which 

 was housed in the Museum. He did not know what the general 

 opinion of those present was, but he thought most decidedly that 

 the Council had never adopted a wiser resolution than when they 

 decided to strike a rate of ^d. in the £1 for the purpose of 

 increasing the accommodation at the City Museum, and being 

 able to house the collection now at College Square North. It 

 seemed to him that in the interests of the city it was most desir- 

 able that they should have an Art Gallery and Museum worthy of 

 Belfast ; and, further, that in the interests of science, and especially 

 of natural history — with which that Society had been particularly 

 connected since its origination — it was most important that there 

 should be a proper Museum, adequately fitted up, and able to 



