52 THE FEDERATION IDEAL FOR NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETIES,
means of its Committee of Delegates, but also of smaller
societies, and of isolated individual workers. The ideal in this
matter is, I take it, as implied in Mr. Abbott's paper, that the
whole country should be parcelled out between working societies
in touch with the Association. That this consummation may
be reached would necessitate the formation of some new
societies, and the rejuvenescence — to use a physiological
metaphor—of many others; whilst in the case of societies, like
our own, working a large area, a policy of decentralization will,
I think, be to some extent necessary, if the work is to be
efficiently carried out over the whole area.
The Yorkshire Naturalists' Union with its 27 affiliated
societies, besides individual members, its joint monthly Journal
and its Transactions, nearly approaches my ideal in this direction,
and I should like to see not merely one flourishing County
society in Norfolk, one in Suffolk, and our own Club in Essex;
but—especially when one takes into consideration the great
difficulties of cross-country travelling to attend evening meetings
and committees—several societies in each county. Lynn,
Hunstanton, Cromer, and Yarmouth ought to do something as
well as Norwich ; Lowestoft and Bury St. Edmunds as well as
Ipswich ; and Colchester, Saffron Walden, Braintree, Southend,
Walthamstow, and Maldon as well as Chelmsford. It is a mere
matter of name whether such local bodies of workers be called
Committees of a County Club or Societies in a County Associa-
tion1 : but it is obvious that the essential pre requisite for such a
scheme is a body of workers over the whole area. This does
not exist ; but with increased missionary effort it could, I main-
tain, be brought into existence. And here I would say at once
that I yield to no member of the Club and to no one outside the
Club in my admiration of the work which we, as a Club, have
been able to do in—I may also say, throughout—this county ;
but no one can be blind to the fact that a great—an undue—
share of this work has depended upon the efforts of a very small
proportion of our members. Now while experience shows that
local societies never do flourish unless they have some devoted
enthusiast to "run" them, it is, I believe, equally true that one
of the most prolific causes of the demise of local societies is their
degeneration—I use the term advisedly—into "one man shows."
1 In favour of the former alternative it may perhaps be urged that if local workers are
only members of a Committee of a County Club their local enthusiasm will not tend to lessen
the ardour of their zeal for the County, and the finances of the central organization will thus
be in less danger.