80 MEETINGS. 



As you will hear from the Treasurer, the finances of the 

 Society show a balance in hand of £6 7s. ljd. 



W. Sharp, Hon. Sec. 



The Hon. Treasurer followed with a financial statement. 

 The President then read the 



PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



" The year which this evening terminates has, in most 

 senses, been a very successful one. I need not enter into the 

 numerical or financial position further than to say that we can 

 well congratulate ourselves on having maintained the Society 

 in the high state of efficiency in which the year found it at 

 the commencement. The reports of the Secretary and Trea- 

 surer will do the rest. 



" In looking around and comparing the work of our 

 Society with like societies, I feel justified in declaring that 

 we are not unfavourably placed. That we could do more I 

 know, but that we do more than average work I also know, 

 and as your temporary head I feel proud of the fact that we 

 have worked together harmoniously and successfully. 



" The introduction, some years since, of sectional work 

 is now proved to have been a wise division of labour, and the 

 appointment of sectional secretaries has greatly smoothed the 

 working of our Society, while it has prevented the general 

 secretary from the great increase of work which would other- 

 wise have fallen to his share. But the true value of the 

 sections is seen best in the field where each is free to study 

 its own subject and roam over the ground unshackled by a 

 following that is anxiously desiring to be somewhere else. I 

 sincerely hope that the sections will not only maintain their use- 

 fulness but increase their number. And I cannot pass by this 

 opportunity of pleading with the general membership to attach 

 themselves more firmly to the Society by choosing a subject 

 to which they will devote study, and by joining the section 

 interested in their study. 



" When we think that the Society is par excellence one 

 of unselfish plodding usefulness, one in which no individual 

 member can have any aim but the advancement of knowledge, 

 and that, in the act of such advancement, he or she must 

 increase his or her own store of knowledge, we have the great- 

 est inducement to an increased display of useful energy. We 

 may also claim that, though we may be free from any desire 

 for personal benefit, yet a large and permanent good is to be 

 derived by any who will work with us and for us, for just as 



