xlii 
Report to the General Meeting, 
4. The accounts for the year 1887 have been examined and 
certified by the auditors and accountants of the Society, and have 
been published in the current number of the Journal, together 
with the statement of Receipts and Expenditure relating to the 
Newcastle Meeting. The funded property of the Society is now 
25,885L 4s. 2d., while the balance of the current account in 
the hands of the Society's Bankers on the 1st instant was 
5,69 n. 19s. 9d. 
5. The Special Committee of the Council, which, as stated 
in the Report to the December meeting, has been engaged in an 
examination of the expenditure of the Society, has now completed 
its labours. The field of the Society's operations is very wide, 
and has been increased from time to time as new opportunities 
for useful action have arisen. The expenditure has inevitably 
increased in proportion ; but all the items of it have been passed 
in review, and the Council have every reason to expect that 
important economies will be effected in the future by the 
adoption of the Committee's suggestions. 
6. As the expenditure in connection with the annual Country 
Meetings is the most serious item in the Society's accounts, the 
special attention of the Committee has been given to this subject. 
Various recommendations have been made, to many of which 
the Council have already given effect, but the Committee have 
been unable to suggest any substantial reductions that can be 
effected without interfering with the success and popularity of 
the Meeting. It will be interesting to the Members to learn 
that the saving in the cost of erection of the Showyard under 
the supervision of the Society's own Surveyor, as against the 
superseded contract system, amounts to no less a sum than 
2,237Z. per annum on the average of the last seven years. 
7. One of the functions of the Special Committee was to 
report on the desirableness of reducing " the charges made to 
Members for the entry of stock and implements, and for their 
chemical and botanical privileges." Upon the recommendation 
of the Committee, the Council assented in December last to 
reductions in the charges made to exhibitors for implement 
shedding and for entries in the Implement Catalogue, and these 
reductions were made applicable to the Country Meeting tliis 
