54 
the more extended form in which they have been issued to members. The Council 
think it well to i*emind the Society of the circumstances under which the change 
was made. During the year 1865, your Hon. Reporting Secretary received both 
verbally and in writing, several expressions of a desire on the part of members 
generally, to possess a report of the Society's Proceedings in a more permanent 
form than that of the newspaper slips, which were then the only published record. 
Enquiries were made as to the probable cost of this, and with such results that 
the Council did not feel justified in recommending to the Society the adoption of 
any plan. Early in 1866, however, these suggestions were again urged upon the 
attention of the officers of the Society, and the experiment was made of printing 
one month's Proceedings. This was so much liked, that, at the April meeting of 
the Society, in that year, it was unanimously resolved that the Proceedings should 
be published in this form, and reprinted from the previous January. This course 
was approved of at the Annual Meeting, but no definite resolution was come-to 
as to how the necessarily increased expenditure was to be met, although several 
suggestions were made. The question was again brought before the Society at 
the first general meeting of this Session, October 4th, 1866, when it was resolved 
unanimously that a payment of 2s. 6d. should be made by each member to cover 
the expenses of the Society from January, (when the Annual subscriptions were 
due) till May, 1867, and that the Annual subscription should thenceforth be 
7s. 6d. instead of 5s., and should be due at the Annual Meeting in May. This 
arrangement, and the alteration of Rule IX, were duly published in the Proceed- 
ings, and the required notice for their confirmation inserted in the summonses of 
the November meeting, at which this course was unanimously approved by the 
members present, and no opinion adverse to it was received by any officer of the 
Society, or any member of the Council, who therefore hoped that the proposed 
plan was agreeable to the whole of the members of the Society. They were, in 
consequence, much concerned to hear, at the January meeting of the Society, of 
the extreme difficulty your Hon. Treasurer had met-with in obtaining the extra 
2s. 6d., and they regret to have to state that, up to the date of this report, more 
than one-fourth of the members have failed to make this payment, although re- 
peatedly applied-to for it, and that of these several have actually declined to do 
so. On this account, the Society is considerably in debt to its Treasurer, and this 
debt will go on increasing unless the subscriptions are duly paid, or the expendi- 
ture diminished. With reference to this last point, it may be stated that the 
Council took considerable trouble to ascertain the lowest scale of charge for 
printing, and also to obtain advertisements on the cover of the Proceedings, with 
the view of partly reimbursing the Society, and they think they ought to state, 
further, that the only criticism which has reached them upon the Proceedings, is 
that even now they are not sufficiently full. To make them fuller, would, of 
course, increase the cost still more, and although the Editor feels that it would 
frequently be more satisfactory that the reports should be more complete, the 
present state of the finances will not allow of such an extension. 
The Council also wish that it should be known that, although they felt it right 
to authorise their two Secretaries to employ occasional paid assistance, to aid them 
in the discharge of their duties to the Society, neither of these gentlemen have 
availed themselves of the power thus given them, and that the whole of their work, 
