17 
seription not suHiciii" to pay the expenses incurred. When, therefore, 
three years ago, pressin<f business cares caused him to ask to he relieved 
of the continuous strain that his regularity at our meetings entailed, 
it was with the greatest regret that we accepted his determination to 
cease to be our President. What I may describe as a breakdown in our 
finances has occurred during the time that I have been holding the 
office of President, and it may be well if I just give an account of my 
stewardship during the time that I have been your President and 
review the position of the Society, financially, during that period. In 
1896 (the first year that I held the office of President), the debt of 
£5 10s. 5d. became increased to £16 5s. 8d., and the subscriptions 
received decreased. Both these facts are capable of simple explanation. 
The cost of our /hv>cm/0n/.shad decreased from£9 3s. to £6 8s. 2d., but the 
cost of circulars, postage and stationery was raised suddenly from 12s. 6d. 
in 1895, to £7 5s. 5d. in 1896, whilst an extra £1 for the removal of 
the book-cases to our present meeting rooms and an increase of 6s. 6d. 
in the cost of hooks for the library are the only other items that show an 
increased cost. The explanation of the reduction of our income is simple. 
In 1896 some of our members withdrew their subscriptions from the 
Society, having become interested in another, the North London Natural 
History Society, and the district that had previously supplied us with 
members was now covered by this other Society. Now, if we turn to 
the other point, I believe I am correct in stating that the large item of 
£7 5s. 5d. for stationery and postage was explained as being due to an 
accumulation of debts in this direction for some years, therefore the 
balance-sheet presented in Hecemher, 1895, did not show the true 
indebtedness of the Society, and a large sum is made to appear as a 
debt in 1896 that accumulated before 1895. I am stating these facts 
plainly because I think I should be doing less than justice to myself if 
I did not show how the apparent indebtedness, accumulated during my 
tenure of office, has been due to matters of which I knew nothing until 
they were presented to the Society. 
’ With a deficit of £16 5s. 8d.'to bring over from 1896, we find that 
this was apparently reduced to £12 6s. Id. by the end of 1897, 
although we had paid a sum of £9 18s. for our PrormUnj/s. Our 
stamp and stationery bill still remains an important item, being some 
£2 13s. 7d. for 63 members, i.r., above lOd. per member. This I 
consider more than twice as high as it ought to l)e, and if our Secre¬ 
taries will send regularly month by month all arrangements for that 
month to the Muntldji MaijazDie, the the 
Knt(i)ii()loi/ist's JIcconl, iind Sciotrr (i-ossip, tliQ need for circulars and 
postage will be done away with. This is a good enough method for the 
Entomological Society of London, we have simply attempted to go one 
better, and we cannot aft'ord it. There is another view of the matter 
that this stamp bill presents, it is this—that many members who 
pretend to wish the Society well, sap the Society’s finances and waste 
the Ti’easurer’s time in extracting the subscription that ought to be a 
payment of love. But this deficit of £12 6s. Id. was only a paper 
deficit. The real deficit was £17 6s. Id., for we had absorbed the £5 
paid for a life-member.ship in 1896. This year a special efiort has 
been made. Following the method pursued by all similar societies, an 
appeal was made to members to subscril)e the necessary funds to print 
our ProardiHi/s. This was, with the exception of a few members, but 
