f 
IK 
feebly responded to, and resulted in a sum of £0 6s. being collected. 
A special effort, too, was made to reduce our indebtedness, and as a 
result of this appeal a sum of £6 was subscribed. 
These two sums practically cleared off the expenses incurred for 
our Pruceediuifs this vear, and left us the whole of our ordinary income 
to meet current expenses. Hut here our Treasurer stepped in. Tlie 
Society -was indebted to him for the sum of £12 Gs. Id., and he 
absorbed this as the subscriptions were paid. 'When, therefore, the 
first half year’s rent fell due in June last, the Treasurer refused to pay 
the amount until the funds of the Society permitted him to do so. As 
you all know, these funds were not forthcoming until our last meeting, 
and then only by an effort not altogether honest to next year’s officers. 
Still, the effect of our Treasurer’s action has had an unlooked for 
result, as many of our supporters have asked me whether the Society 
is really bankrupt. With our cabinet and library the idea is absurd, 
and strangely enough, and paradoxical as it may appear, the Society is 
now in a far better position at tliis crucial stage than it lias been for 
years. . . 
I have no details of our actual financial position before me, but 
roughly we may say that the year’s work will figure out as follows : 
We'^shall have paid £12 (about) for our Procevdiwjii: we shall have 
paid £12 Gs. Id., last year’s deficit; we shall have paid all minor 
expenses except the stainp account, and we shall have paid one-half 
year’s rent, £u. To my successor, therefore, I hand over, if not a 
clean sheet, at any rate, a clear understanding as to what our financial 
position really is. , , i, i 
1 trust that no accumulation of petty debts will ever be allowed 
to appear on a balance sheet of this Society again, but that each year 
will see its own creditor and expenditure account clearly set forth, an 
actual statement of our actual position. 
There is nothing else to be said, perhaps, on this head. We can 
hold out no hope of a greatly increased or even moderately increasing 
membership. Two (or even three) societies are in existence north of 
the Thames, where there is plainly only room for one, and by weaken¬ 
ing one another, each prevents the other from doing any scientific 
'work. If the new societies Avere poAverful and strong enough to absorb 
the old, to produce scientific reports, and to print the scientific papers 
produced hy the entomologists north of the Thames, there Avould be 
nothing to say, but, like the societies of old, pleasant social meetings 
and outings and interesting shoAVS are the sum total, and the money 
goes in rent, Avhich, added to one of the older societies’ cotters, Avould 
alloAV the printing of Prormliiuix of scientific value, and one asks 
Avonderingly—What is there lacking in the older societies that the 
members of the neAver require and supply ? blcho ansAA'ers — W hat? 
I Avish to drive the moral home by a comparison. Tbe South 
London Lntomological Society caters for the district south of the 
Thames, the City of London district for that north of the 'riiames. 
The Avhole energy of the South London people is concentrated on the 
one society, one expense for rooms suffices, and as a result Ave find the 
income of the Society for 1K‘)7 amounts to £71, and the sum spent on 
their L’nxwliiins to be £55. A union between the tAVO societies north 
of the Thames'should still be witbin tbe boimds of practical politics, 
and it might be possible (if there be any personal clement in the 
