A.DURE88. 
Read by the President, Mr. II. 1 >. ( 1 eld art, to the Member * of 
the. Norfoll- and Norwich Natural irt s’ Society, at their 
Twenty-seventh Annual Meetiny, held at the Norwich Castle- 
Museum, March dttth, 1896. 
Ladies and Gentlemen — I come before you to-night in a unique 
position, as being the first person you have honoured by making 
him your President for the third time ; and I assure you that I feel 
a great compliment has been conferred on me by your doing so, and 
hope that you will place some others of our members who have 
already served the office twice in the same position, feeling sure 
that they will be able to perform its duties better than I have done. 
The year now ended has not been a very eventful one to our 
Society ; it has been marked especially by the large number of 
deaths among our more distinguished members, and to this cause, 
principally, we owe a slight diminution in our numbers. We began 
the year with 270, we have lost by death and other causes 19, and 
have now 201, having elected 13 during the year. Our finauces, 
as you have heard from the Treasurer, are in a sound and good 
condition. Ten pounds have been drawn from the Life Membership 
Fund ; but, as you see by the Balance Sheet, very little of it has 
been spent, and there is no occasion for any further draft from that 
fund for the coming year. 
At the meeting in April, Mr. A. W. Preston sent us an account 
of the Great Storm of March 24th, which will appear in the 
‘Transactions’; and, on the same evening, Mr. Clement Reid was 
elected our representative to the meeting of the British Association 
at Ipswich. It turned out, however, that he was unable to repre- 
sent us. Mr. H. B. Woodward was asked to take his place; but a 
VOL. vi. 
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