232  Report  to  the  Half-yearly  General  Meeting, 
Balance-sheet  for  1903,  submitted  at  the  Anniversary  General 
Meeting  held  last  May,  that  the  Society  had  to  commence  its 
operations  for  the  current  year  without  any  free  assets  which 
would  be  immediately  available  for  realisation  in  the  eA'ent  of 
the  Society’s  operations  for  1904  resulting  in  a loss,  as  has 
unfortunately  proved  to  be  the  case.  Now  that  the  Reserve 
Fund  has  been  exhausted,  the  sum  of  6,0O0L  from  Annual 
Subscriptions  is  all  the  Income  that  can  be  relied  upon  at 
present  to  meet  the  cost  of  administering  the  Society  and 
providing  the  whole  body  of  Members  (including  3,500 
Life  Members)  with  their  privileges.  The  total  expenses  of  the 
Society,  other  than  those  directly  connectetl  with  the  holding 
of  the  Annual  Show,  but  including  the  cost  of  organising  at 
Hanover  Square  the  preliminaries  of  the  Show  (only  a part  of 
which  has  heretofore  been  debited. to  the  Show  Account),  were, 
in  1903,  10,200/.,  of  which  9,055/.  appeared  in  the  “Ordinary” 
Income  and  Expenditure  Account  and  1,149/.  in  the  Show 
Account.  It  is  important  in  the  best  intei-ests  of  the  Society 
that  the  several  departments  of  its  public  work  should  be 
continued,  so  far  as  funds  will  permit.  The  Council  see  their 
way  to  effect  various  economies  l)y  reductions  of  the  salaries  of 
the  higher  officials,  savings  in  clerkage,  &c.,  a diminution  of 
the  Journal,  re-arrangements  in  the  Cliemical  and  Veterinary 
Departments,  and  letting  off  part  of  Harewood  House,  which 
will  bring  down  the  head  office  expenses  in  the  future  by  a sum 
which,  when  all  the  new  arrangements  have  been  completed  and 
if  the  Society’s  debts  can  be  paid  off,  will  be  about  2,200/.  a 
year,  thus  reducing  the  total  cost  to  8,000/.  a year.  The 
adjustment  of  the  total  cost  as  thus  reduced,  which  seems  to  the 
Council,  after  careful  consideration,  to  be  fair  as  between  the 
General  Account  a)ul  the  Show  Account,  is  6,000/.  to  the  fonner 
(including  the  Journal  and  all  the  scientific  departments)  and 
2,000/.  to  the  latter.  Thus,  though  the  Society  might  in  the 
future  be  able  to  carry  on  all  its  de])artments  of  public  work 
other  than  the  Shows  out  of  the  income  which  it  at  present 
receives,  it  could  not  with  such  an  income  organise  a Show,  nor 
could  it,  having  no  longer  a Reserve  Fund  of  its  own,  or  the 
considerable  financial  assistance  which  it  used  to  receive  from 
the  localities  formerly  visited,  bear  the  money  loss  which  the 
holding  of  a Show  must  now  almost  certainly  entail  from  the 
probable  receipts  falling  short  of  the  necessary  expenditure. 
11.  The  financial  j)osition  of  the  Society  at  the  end  of  this 
year  will  be  as  follows  : In  order  to  i>ay  for  the  losses  on  the 
1904*  Show  and  the  cui-rent  obligations  up  to  the  end  of  this 
year,  the  Council  have  (1)  an-anged  with  the  Society's  Bankers 
to  continue  until  July  31,  HK)5,  the  loan  of  12,000/.  granted 
by  it  in  1903  on  security  of  the  Harewood  House  Debenture 
