140 fcOYAL ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 



The Balance Sheet which is placed before you to-day reveals a position which may be regarded 

 as satisfactory, inasmuch as our expenditure has been kept well within our income, and a modest 

 beginning has been made in the establishment of a Capital Fund. 



The membership at the time of registration was fixed, for the formal purposes of the Act. at twenty, 

 but an increase of 250 was subsequently sanctioned and registered, making a total of 270 as the 

 maximum number that may be admitted as members without further registration. The number of 

 actual members, however, is vet far short of the authorised quota, the roll on the 30th June, ioiS, 

 containing 7 Honorary, 140 Ordinary, and 7 Associate Members. Your Council invites your co-opera- 

 tion in ar endeavour to increase the number on the roll to such an extent that additional registration 

 will be necessary. In this connection, you may remember that the privileges of free admission to 

 Taronga Park n.re accorded to a maximum of 300 members and that every member above that number 

 means an addition of £1 is. per annum to the income of the Park Trust. 



During the period under review, two parts (Nos. 4 and 5) of the " Australian Zoologist " have 

 been issued. Your Council feels that the existing war conditions, and the consequent heavy cost 

 of paper and printing, preclude any great increase in the output of publications, but it will endeavour 

 to issue sufficient to provide a means of communication between Council and members, and of recording 

 the results of individual observation and research in zoology. That the Commonwealth Bureau of 

 Science and Industry has re-issued Mr. Hedley's article on the Economics of Trochtts niloticus as one 

 of its Bulletins is a subject of gratification to your Council. 



The Trustees of Taronga Park have been good enough to afford special facilities to members of 

 this Society resident at Mosman, by opening the gates of the Park to them in the morning before the 

 usual hour. 



Reference has already been made to the establishment of a Capital Fund . into which it is proposed to 

 pay all unconditional cash donations, subscriptions of life members, fines under the Birds and Animals 

 Protection Acts, and such other funds as the Council may determine. (" Australian Zoologist," vol. 1 , 

 p. Km.) As a beginning, application has been made for /loo Funded Stock in the Sixth War Loan. 



A Bill for the Protection of Native Birds and Animals is now before Parliament, and in view of 

 the fact that it is proposed to repeal the existing provisions contained in the Birds Protection Act. 

 1901 , and the Native Animals Protection Act, 1903, under which this Society receives one half of the 

 tines imposed on offenders against those Acts, your Council has made application to the State Govern- 

 ment for a subsidy, and the matter is receiving consideration. 



The Want of Australian Natural History Hand-books. 



During his term of office as Governor of this State, Lord Chelmsford, in opening a new wing of 

 the Australian Museum, referred to the want of cheap hand-books to the butterflies, birds, etc., of 

 Australia, and attributed the dearth of Australian boy-collectors to this want. He instanced the 

 numerous and inexpensive hand-books available for the use of the British boy-collector. 



The absence of such hand-books is not due to the lack of men capable of writing them, but to 

 three reasons, none of which is applicable to Great Britain. In the first place, the market is limited 

 For one young collector (actual or potential) in Australia there are ten in Great Britain. In the second 

 place, the cost of locally printing and publishing properly illustrated works is very much greater than 

 in England, and even if the manuscript were sent to England for printing, the cost of supervision, 

 freight, and other charges would add considerably to the price at which the books could be sold in 

 Australia. In the third place, the number of species in each branch of natural history is very much 

 larger in Australia than in Great Britain. In thecaseofthe butterflies, there are about 86 species recorded 



