Annual Meeting. 5 



The President said: — The Report and Statement of Accounts 

 are both very satisfactory. The total receipts for the year 

 were X 2 9 x > including a small balance carried over from last 

 year. We are able to take forward now the very substantial 

 balance of ^63 us. 4d. From this state of things I augur 

 that next year's meetings will be even more successful than 

 they have been in the past. The increasing popularity of the 

 Society is no doubt largely due to the public Jectures which 

 have been given, and which have met with universal approval, 

 and so long as the Society has a balance in hands which will 

 enable them to increase the number of lectures they will, I 

 think, be justified in doing so. When the lectures were first 

 started there had to be a guarantee fund raised to cover any 

 possible loss, but I am happy to say that, with one exception, 

 the guarantors have never been called upon, the balance having 

 been at all other times upon the right side. I believe that 

 was the case, but the Hon. Treasurer will correct me if mis- 

 taken. 



Mr. Brown — The guarantors were never called upon. There 

 was a balance on the wrong side once, but on the whole now 

 there is a gain of a pound or two. 



The President, continuing, said : — I am glad to know that 

 matters are even better than I had assumed. Last year there 

 were four lectures given, all of which were appreciated by the 

 public, two of them, given in the St. George's Hall, particularly 

 so. With regard to the twelve ordinary meetings of the Society 

 which have been held, all the subjects treated were of very 

 great importance. One of the most popular of the papers read, 

 I think, was that of Mr. Brown on Education, and I am 

 glad to know that it is about to be published in pamphlet 

 form. The meeting at which the subject of Sanitation was 

 dealt with was also an important one, and a very lively 

 discussion took place, which indeed might have been prolonged 

 with interest for two or three meetings had the Council seen 

 their way to postpone it, but there were too many papers on 

 hand to allow that to be done. Possibly next season the subject 



