862 Financial Report. [Aug. 



heavy burthen upon the Society's finances. Over and above the 

 Curator's salary of Rs. 250, and the allowance for collecting and 

 preserving specimens received from Government, the Society expends 

 in this department out of its own resources about Rs. 142 8. The 

 establishment, independently of the Curator, consists of four Taxider- 

 mists or assistants, and two Carpenters, besides Durwans and Fe- 

 rashes, who ought properly to be included in the general establishment 

 of the Society. The Society has farther, pursuant to a resolution of 

 the 21st day of Oct. 1845, to pay the sum of Rs. 40 per mensem as a 

 house allowance to the Curator. The Contingent bill of the depart- 

 ment more than exhausts the Government monthly allowance of 

 Rs. 50. 



The Council consider it essential for the well-being of the Society 

 under existing circumstances to reduce the expenditure under this head 

 to an amount exceeding as little as possible that of the Government 

 allowances. They propose therefore that the establishment be reduced 

 to a Curator, and two Taxidermists at Rs. 30 each ; that one of those 

 Taxidermists be paid out of the Government allowance of Rs. 50. per 

 mensem ; that the contingencies, including carpenter's work (the pre- 

 sent carpenters being no longer kept on the fixed establishment) be 

 limited as far as possible to the balance of that sum. They further 

 propose that the house allowance to the Curator, a charge which the 

 funds of the Society are no longer adequate to bear, be discontinued, 

 but that his reduction do not take effect until the 1st of October next. 



3rd. With respect to the Library, the Council recommend that the 

 fixed establishment consist merely of one Librarian at a monthly 

 salary of Co.'s Rs. 50, who is to have the charge of all the books 

 whether European or Oriental. Of this sum the Council consider 

 that Co.'s Rs. 25 should be paid by the Oriental Fund, which has 

 hitherto borne the charge of Rs. 30 per mensem, for the Moulvie who 

 took care of the Arabic and Persian works. They recommend that 

 the services of the Moulvie in this respect be discontinued, and that 

 for the future no Moulvie or Pundit form part of the fixed establish- 

 ment of the Society, but the cost of employing such persons, if their 

 services are required for the purposes of collation or copying MSS., or 

 of correcting the press, be treated as contingent, and defrayed accord- 

 ingly out of the Oriental Fund. It is proposed that this reduction of 



