2 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 



months. The expenditure was £1,268 lis., showing also an 

 increase of £88 on the total of the year before, chiefly due to the 

 holding of the Conversazione and to the extra cost of printing and 

 publishing the Society's Journal. There was a cash balance of 

 £41 12s, to the credit of the General Account at the end of the 

 year while there were no liabilities ; but it should be mentioned, 

 that owing to the heavy expenditure the amount received for 

 entrance fees during the last two years, amounting to £65 2s. has 

 not been transferred to the Building and Investment Account, 

 according to previous practice. The Building and Investment 

 Fund now amounts to £566 17s. Id., and the Clarke Memorial 

 Fund to £300 Is. 8d., which is invested on fixed deposit at the 

 Union Bank for twelve months at five per cent. 



It is the intention some day to use this Building and Invest- 

 ment Fund, together with the proceeds from the sale of our 

 present property, should a favourable opportunity for doing so 

 arrive, towards the cost of acquiring larger and more suitable 

 premises, especially on account of our increasing Library and the 

 desirability of providing comfortable reading rooms and other 

 offices. To obtain this desirable change may take years, yet the 

 Council is keeping it steadily in view. 



One of our aims now, and for some years past, has been the 

 acquisition of a good scientific Library. We are therefore spend- 

 ing yearly a considerable portion of our income in the acquisition 

 of books in all branches of science and of some of the best scien- 

 tific periodicals — English, French, and German. We may fairly 

 claim to possess already the best and most complete sets of 

 scientific publications in the Colonies. During last year we 

 expended in the purchase of : 



Scientific books ... ... ... ... £46 6 10 



Scientific periodicals ... ... ... £63 15 5 



Back numbers of scientific serials to com- 

 plete the sets where possible... ... £42 12 



For book binding £93 16 7 



During the last ten years the expenditure on books and periodicals 



