131
Report of Council for 1957
The tear was not marked with obvious signposts but there has been a
steady forward impetus in the scientific work of the Club.
Much interesting work was done during the field meetings arranged by
Mrs. 8. G. Harley and the programme included two unusual meetings. One
was a lichens and bryophytes excursion which, in the driest county in Britain
and one with more than its share of smoke pollution, proved well worth
while. The other, a week-end visit to Skipper's Island, is likely to lead to a
programme of regular ecological investigation. The indoor meetings produced
a number of valuable additions to the knowledge of the County.
The Club membership has fallen slightly and now stands at 203. There
were two losses by death, eight resignations and seven deletions from the
list of members.
The death of Colonel B. N. Buxton in September, 1957, was a loss to
the whole County, he was a Verderer of Epping Forest in the management
of which he took a very active part and had been a member of the Club
since 1929.
The very sudden death of Dr. J. F. Hayward in January, 1958, has
deprived the Club of an eminent geologist who was a member of this Council
and who had contributed a number of papers to The Essex Naturalist. He
was elected to membership in 1955.
The Passmore Edwards Museum, under the direction of Mr. Kenneth
Marshall, B.A., continues the very necessary work of research and education
in the County. There have been 24,000 visitors to the Museum this year and
members who will have seen the reports of the Board of Governors from
time to time will recognise the steady progress being made.
The Council are grateful to the Education Committee of the Corporation
of West Ham for continuing to allow the Club to hold its indoor meetings
in the College of Technology and to Mr. Marshall for allowing us the use
of his room for our meetings, often at great inconvenience to himself.
At the Epping Forest Museum, in the care of our Honorary Curator,
Mr. Bernard Ward, the work of reorganising the exhibits is progressing
steadily and Mr. Ward hopes to have the main work completed this year.
Attendance at this Museum was 14,000 during the year. Our thanks are due
to Mr. Joseph Boss for supervising the exhibit of flowering plants and to
Mr. B. Hall for his valuable assistance in providing specimens. We are
most grateful to Mr. David Pinniger for his assistance in the general recon-
struction work in the Museum. Much material relating to the Forest has
been added to the collections.
We are very pleased to learn that our distinguished member, Mr. William
Addison, has been elected a Verderer of Epping Forest.
Our Honorary Editor, Mr. C. B. Pratt, continues the arduous task of pro-
ducing our journal, beset by rising costs he performs his editing of The Essex
Naturalist with admirable skill and patience; he has our utmost confidence.
The careful handling of the Club finances by our Honorary Treasurer,
Mr. E. F. Williams, has made it just possible to avoid raising the annual
subscription in spite of the necessity of subsidising several field meetings
and of paying for an eighty-eight page issue of The Essex Naturalist. The
introduction of a few new members from amongst the people who are in
sympathy with the Club's objects would greatly assist your Council in its
efforts to maintain the subscription at the present modest figure.