36 ANNUAL REPORT OF
finally decides on the course of action with regard to members in arrear with
their subscriptions it is difficult to state the exact number of members. It may
Le put provisionally at about 420.
In accordance with the intimation in last year's report, the Council very care-
fully considered the important question of the revision of the rate of subscription,
and eventually, with some reluctance, decided to recommend the members to
adopt the following proposals :—
That the Subscription shall remain as before, viz., 10s. 6d. per annum, but that
each member wishing to receive the "Essex Naturalist" shall subscribe a further sum
of 4s. 6d. in advance in each year towards the expenses of publication, postages, &c.
That the Life Membership shall be £8 8s.
The reasons for these proposals were fully put before the members in a special
circular (which is set out in the E.N., vol. iv., pp. 228, 229), and need not be
repeated here. The question was simply whether the publications should be
curtailed, with an almost certain injury to the usefulness and prestige of the
Club, or whether the members should voluntarily tax themselves with an increased
subscription, and so enable the Council to carry on the work with vigour. The
latter course was adopted, and the Council feels assured that when the slight
difficulties and friction consequent upon any changes of the kind have passed
away, the new rules will work well.
The Council much regrets that, notwithstanding every reasonable economy,
the payments on the general account have again exceeded the receipts, and the
balance on the wrong side is now £76 4s. 4d., as against £41 18s. 10d. on the
31st of December, 1889, being an increase of £34 5s. 6d. A considerable portion
of this is, however, accounted for by the exceptionally heavy printers' bill which
was carried over from 1889, viz., £46 2s. 6d., as compared with the one now due,
viz., £25 2s. 3d., and it is confidently anticipated that, under the operation of
the new rules as regards subscriptions, the debtor balance will rapidly disappear,
and the expenditure be eventually brought well within the income.
It will be observed by the balance-sheet that fair progress has been made in
collecting the overdue subscriptions, which have figured to so serious an extent
in former reports. Of the amount due at the end of 1889 a sum of £40 was
estimated as good, and of this about £35 (in subscriptions and entrance-fees) had
actually been received by the 31st ultimo, and £2 12s. fid. has since come in.
In round figures this item stood at about £80 at the close of last year, and of this
the Treasurer estimates £40 as good, £20 as doubtful, and £20 as bad. Every
effort will be made to render it as productive an asset as possible, but the above is
as sanguine a view as can be safely adopted in the light of painful experience.
The Council desires to direct attention to the fact that the amount of unpaid
subscriptions almost exactly corresponds with the excess of payments over
receipts, so that if the ladies and gentlemen who are in default had duly dis-
charged their obligations to the Club (as the Council had a perfect right to
expect) the accounts would have exhibited at least an equilibrium, instead of a
considerable deficit.
In last year's report allusion was made to the proposed renewed attempt to
establish a Local Museum in Essex. This very important subject has received
great attention during the year. The Committee appointed in 1889 to draw up a
scheme for the amalgamation of the Essex and Chelmsford Museum with the
Essex Field Club, has now agreed upon such a scheme, which will be placed
before the members at the Annual Meeting. As that meeting will be devoted to
a discussion of the scheme, it is unnecessary to enlarge upon it here. [It is set