168 THE ESSEX NATURALIST
should be education. As one of the leading county field clubs it
should strive to accomplish much in this direction, through the
medium of lectures to the public and to schools, through its
museum, of which its library forms an integral part, and its
pictorial survey and, I hope, through its journal and other publi-
cations. Here finance inevitably looms large, but a start might
be made in a small, quiet way. In fact, a start has been made,
for the Ilford Education Authority has already asked for our help
and I scarcely need say we are doing all we can to give the required
assistance. If the education authorities of the county can be made
to realise that we are a very live concern, actively interested in
modern educational developments, I think they will quickly dis-
cover that they need our help : such co-operation will be mutually
beneficial. Perhaps before long it will be possible for us to
appoint an officer who is concerned with this aspect of our work
—an Education Secretary is not a new idea for a field club. We
might manage to have occasional exhibition meetings and lectures
in our programme which are open to the public and which are
advertised sufficiently widely by posters and through the Press to
attract the public. Some such meetings might be specially
designed for juvenile audiences. It seems to me that it devolves
largely on us to convince the public that they need such things
and that we can, and will, satisfy their requirements.
The closure of the Essex Museum is, of course, a very serious
blow to the development of such plans, but I will not believe that
it is a knockout blow. It seems very apparent to me that the
Club has a useful function in West Ham and we must look on the
closing of the museum as temporary and urge at suitable times
the need for its reopening to the public. By urging I do not mean
worrying or importuning ; our tactics should not be to worry
the borough authorities, but by a vigorous educational policy to
create a demand for the museum in the borough. It seems safe
to assume that if that demand were general enough the
borough authorities would find ways and means to satisfy it.
If we can do that, the closing of the museum to the public will
be one of the finest things that ever happened to the Essex
Field Club.
Let me say, bluntly, that in my opinion the need for a museum
and even for a library for the Club is less important now than it
was in the early days of our existence. I hope this remark will
not be misunderstood or misinterpreted. Both library and
museum are valuable possessions of the Club, but communica-
tions are now so good that the national collections and libraries
are available to nearly all members who may require to use them.
Moreover, an enormous mass of natural history literature is now
published and much of it at a price which puts it within reach of