46 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
Esq., F.G.S., *H. N. Dixon, Esq., M.A., F.L.S., *R. W. Gunther,
Esq., M.A., LL.D., F.L.S., *Martin Hinton, Esq., F.L.S., *G. J. B.
Fox, Esq., A. Bruce Jackson, Esq., A.L.S., F. F. McKenzie,
Esq., *James Groves, Esq., F.L.S., Miss E. L. Turner, F.L.S.,
and not a few Alderman and Councillors of the Borough of West
Ham.
Letters of regret at inability to be present were received
from Lord Rayleigh, Lord Stanmore, the Bishop of Barking, the
Bishop of Colchester, the Mayor of Walthamstow, the Mayor of
Saffron Walden, the President and Secretary of the Essex
Archaeological Society, the Right Hon. Noel Buxton, Dame
Helen Gwynne-Vaughan, Sir J. B. Farmer, Sir Sidney Harmer,
Professor Poulton, Dr. Scott, Professor Ruggles-Gates, Pro-
fessor Marr, Dr. W. D. Lang, the Chairman of the Essex County
Council, and others.
At 3.35 o'clock a public meeting was held with the Mayor
of West Ham (Alderman J. H. Hollins, J.P.) in the chair. In
his address of welcome, His Worship said:—
In welcoming, in the name of the Borough of West Ham,
the guests assembled to commemorate the 50th Anniversary
of the Essex Field Club, I am especially glad to do so on account
of the long and friendly connection between the Borough and
the Club, which has now lasted for thirty-two years.
When the building in which we are now assembled was in
course of erection in 1897, it was considered that the time had
come when a Museum worthy of the Borough should be established,
and so, when the Essex Field Club proposed that the Natural
History collections belonging to the Club should be housed in
the Technical Institute, the idea was warmly welcomed by the
Borough authorities. Thanks to the munificence of the late
Mr. Passmore Edwards, who contributed a sum of £3,000 towards
the erection of a separate Museum building, and a further £1,000
towards fitting it up with exhibition cases, the idea became a
practicable one, and the Museum was duly opened to the public
on October 18th, 1900, by the Countess of Warwick.
Since then a further agreement between the Borough and the
Club, made in February, 1913, brought the Scientific Library
of the Club into line with its collections. The beneficial effects
of this agreement may be estimated when I mention that to-day
* Persons against whose names a star is placed are known to have attended the meeting.