6<5 ROYAL ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 



At a Special General Meeting of the Society, held at the conclusion of the Annual Meeting, 

 February 9th, 1916, a resolution was passed altering the rules of the Society as follows : — 



Rule 7 to read : — 



Ordinary members shall have the right to be present and to vote at all meetings of the Society ; 

 to propose candidates for admission as members ; and, subject to these rules, to have access 

 to the Library and other establishments of the Society and to Taronga Park. 



On payment of the annual subscription, a member shall receive (in addition to the 

 member's ticket) twenty (20) tickets available for use during the current year, each ticket 

 to admit an adult, or two children, children only to be admitted when accompanied by an 

 adult. Tickets must be signed before leaving a member's possession, unsigned tickets 

 being invalid. 



A Special General Meeting of the Society was held on 9th February, 1916, to authorise an alter- 

 ation of the rules, as detailed in the Annual Report for 1915, p. 54, to enable the Council to hand 

 over to the Taronga Park Trust various properties of the Society. Arrangements were also made 

 with the City Council with regard to the removal of various buildings erected in the Gardens at 

 Moore Park, in order that some of the newer cages, etc., might be transferred to Taronga Park. 



The preparations at Taronga Park having reached a stage at which the enclosures were ready 

 to receive the animals, it was decided in June to wind up the business of the Society at Moore Park 

 at the end of that month. The Chief Secretary was therefore written to asking that the Government 

 should take over the control of the Zoological Gardens and its responsibilities as from 1st July, 1916. 



This being sanctioned, a draft agreement with the Taronga Zoological Park Trust was prepared 

 and forwarded to the Minister for Lands for approval. The terms of this agreement are set out on 

 pp. 54-55 of the Annual Report for 1915. It was hoped that this agreement would have been signed 

 at an early date, but owing to unforeseen legal difficulties arising the matter has had to remain in 

 abeyance. Under these circumstances, such privileges as the Society enjoys with regard to the 

 Taronga Park Zoo are wholly dependent upon the goodwill of the Trustees. On the other hand, 

 there is reason to believe that the interests of the Society are not being overlooked, and plans of a 

 building for our use in the Park grounds have been exhibited to your Council. 



The Council decided to retain correspondence and papers relating to the Society, minute-books 

 and records, Library books and office furniture, and asked that half the subscriptions of members 

 for the current year, together with an amount representing half the subscriptions received from life 

 members, be placed to its credit by the Trust. It was decided to open an account in the name of 

 the Society in the Government Savings Bank. 



The July meeting of the Council being its last official meeting as Manager of the Zoological 

 Gardens, it was decided that a circular letter be forwarded to the Council's employees, thanking them 

 for their loyal services during the Society's regime. The Director read a short account tracing the 

 career of the Zoo from the year 1865, when it consisted of several animals kept by Mr. William 

 Beaumont at Sir Joseph Banks' Pleasure Grounds at Botany. 



" The inception of the present Society was due to the late Mr. Walter Bradley and the late Mr. 

 Harry P. Mostyn, who sent out a notice from 170 Pitt Street calling a meeting for March 24, 1879, 

 ' For the purpose of forming a Society for the acclimatisation of song-birds and useful game.' Four 

 hundred members were enrolled and a sum of £500 collected, to which the Government added a like 

 sum. A number of game and other birds were purchased and liberated in the State, including 

 pheasants, California quail, skylarks, goldfinches, yellow hammers, blackbirds, linnets, bullfinches, 

 horned owls and Chinese quails. The most important move was the importation of 5,000 brown 

 trout ova from New Zealand. These were hatched at Cooerwull and liberated near Bega. 



