308 TlMEHRI. 
not then in a position to act as Mr. Davis had pointed 
out was the duty of the society, but private individuals 
filled that gap and offered premiums for years for various 
subjects in connection with agriculture, and by degrees 
got the overseers throughout the length and breadth of 
the land to take a greater interest in the society. He 
believed that through those means new life was infused 
into the society, and partly accounted for the large sur- 
plus in the hands of the Treasurer. He said that if that 
surplus had been available io, 15, or 20 years ago, there 
would have been established in connection with the 
society such works as Mr. Darnell Davis had alluded to, 
and which the Directors had been blamed for not estab- 
lishing, but in those days the society instead of " suffer- 
ing" from a plethora of wealth, lived as it were from 
hand to mouth. At the present time, he felt that they 
were very remiss in not doing more than they had done 
but it seemed entirely due to this being a Commercial 
and not an Agricultural Society. He thought the word 
" agricultural " should be expunged from the name of 
the society altogether, so little was the interest evinced 
when agricultural topics came to be considered, but now 
that a commercial topic like pounds, shillings and pence 
had to be considered to-day, gentlemen were found 
forsaking their business, even on mail day, to come here 
and vote in favour of reduction. He only trusted that 
the reduction of the rate of subscription would have the 
effect of introducing new brooms into the Society, and 
he could only say that the present directorate would be 
very happy indeed to hand over their batons to their 
successors. Mr. Nind had referred to the glowing 
articles which had appeared in the local press as regards 
