N.Z. GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25208, 12 June 1947, Page 8

N.Z. GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY

GRANT BY GOVERNMENT “Much of the council’s time since the last annual report has been taken up with looking into the internal organisation of the society,” said Mr W. B. Harris, chairman of the New Zealand Geographical Society in his report to the annual meeting of the society at Hay’s Lounge last evening. “With the rise in membership over the last 18 months, and the steady increase in subscribing libraries, it became increasingly difficult for the secretary to deal with business matters and a scheme of student assistance was tried out. This has proved to be successful. Routine matters are now dealt w r ith by part-time assistants working a total of about 10 hours a week. “It is gratifying to have a place on the newly formed New Zealand Geographic Board,” continued the chairman, “and the council has nominated Mr J. Anderson as its representative. “In addition to the regular monthly meetings, special meetings had been called, the speakers being important visitors to New Zealand,” said Mr Harris. “In this way, advantage had been taken of the visit of Miss Mildred Cable and Miss Francesca French to this country, and cf the visit of the United States Antarctic > Expedition to Wellington. Among those exchanging journals with the «• ciety are organisations in Vienna, Upsala, and Paris, as well as Englishspeaking countries abroad.” The society recorded with a deep sense of gratitude the annual grant of £250 made by the Minister of Internal Affairs. This had enabled the society to further its efforts to bring New Zealanders a better knowledge of their own country, and to people overseas a wider appreciation of the land in which we live, continued the report. “The objective of 2000 members in the Dominion set in last year’s report had not yet been reached. All branchei of the society, except Auckland, recorded ’a decline in membership, continued Mr Harris. This was mainly due to resignations at the end of 1946, and the fact that subscriptions for new members for 1947, at the time of writing, were few, as a result of the report being prepared so early in the new year.