MEETINGS. 19 



The Report having been approved, the Hon. Treasurer 

 (Mr. Luff) read the financial statement, from which it 

 appeared that the expenditure was £11 14s. lid., and the 

 Receipts £18 Is. 9Jd., leaving a balance in favour of the 

 Society of £6 6s. lOJd. 



Then followed the retiring President's address : — 



Ladies and Gentlemen, — It is a very pleasant thing 

 after the lapse of another year, and on the occasion of this, 

 our eighth annual meeting, to be able to congratulate each 

 other on such a satisfactory record of progress and success as 

 this Society, happily, has to show. As I said last year, I 

 much regret that as President of this Society I have not been 

 able to attend a larger number of its meetings during my 

 tenure of office ; but as you know, it has been simply lack of 

 opportunity and not want of desire, that has kept me away. 

 It is very gratifying to know, however, that the Society 

 has not thereby materially suffered. We fortunately reckon 

 within our ranks a number of thoroughly able and devoted 

 working members, who are labouring on in a systematic man- 

 ner, and the results of whose careful investigations are a real 

 gain to the cause of local science. The carefully-compiled 

 lists of plants, insects, &c, which we owe to their skill and 

 perseverance, are such as any Natural History Society might 

 feel proud of. They have added a precision to the various 

 branches of local study which these subjects never possessed 

 before ; and the results are not only of great interest for 

 home students, but they are also of considerable importance 

 as data upon which English naturalists may draw when 

 requisite, and upon whose correctness they may implicitly 

 depend. The richness and variety of our local fauna and 

 flora are well known. It is, therefore, the more necessary in 

 the interests of general science that their riches should be 

 recorded and their rarities be made known. 



The Society's newly-added department of antiquities and 

 folk-lore is also one that promises some very interesting 

 results, when it is a little more worked. A commencement 

 has been made in this direction, and the subject is one which 

 ought to commend itself to all members who have an oppor- 

 tunity of assisting, even though ever so little. Old customs, 

 old sayings, ancient legends, quaint beliefs, and popular 

 superstitions are rapidly passing away ; and while the disap- 

 pearance from the popular creed of some of these survivals 

 is a thing that in itself may be rejoiced over, yet, as incidents 

 in the history and development of popular thought, and as 



