8 SHORT HISTORY OF ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
the fitting up of a laboratory and the provision of teaching
apparatus, it being suggested to hold instructional classes in
various centres in the County. The application was adversely
criticised by the Technical Instruction Committee of the County
Council, and a revised scheme was accordingly submitted and
approved. Under this, the Essex County Council on July 7,
1891, made a grant of £250 to a Joint Committee for adminis-
trative purposes, composed of six members of its Technical
Instruction Committee and six members of our Club (of which
Joint Committee William Cole was appointed the Secretary and
Science Organiser), £500 for apparatus and diagrams, and £100
for storage and carriage of the same. It was understood that
lecturers and teachers supplied by the Joint Committee were
to have their fees paid by the local Urban Authorities or Com-
mittees engaging their services. By the setting-up of this Joint
Committee, the Club became the first local natural history society
to obtain direct representation upon a County Technical Education
Committee. But the scheme endured only a few years.
Dr. Henry Laver, J.P., M.R.C.S., F.L.S., F.S.A., succeeded
Mr. Fitch as President of the Club at the Annual Meeting of 1892.
In May, 1892, Dr. Laver submitted the manuscript of his work
on "The Mammals, Reptiles and Fishes of Essex" to the Coun-
cil ; this was favourably reported on by a committee, and esti-
mates for producing it as "Special Memoir, No. 3" of the Club
were submitted in March, 1893 : but subsequent negotiations were
protracted and the memoir was not actually published until 1898.
In November, 1892, a further step was taken in the matter
of the Chelmsford Museum, the Council resolving to amalgamate,
as from January 1st, 1893, with the Committee of that Museum,
to take over the property of such Committee, and to call in all
the promised subscriptions, with a view to proceeding forthwith
with the establishment and fitting up of a new museum in the
existing building. Incidentally, the Rules of the Club had
perforce to be revised in April, 1893, by reason of this scheme.
The suggestion was made, in February, 1893, to hold future
ordinary meetings at Stratford instead of at Loughton, as being
a more convenient centre for country members ; the suggestion
was frequently, but not invariably, acted upon during the next
ensuing years.