The Annual General Meeting

Forest and Bird, Issue 89, 1 August 1948, Page 2

The Annual General Meeting

THIS was held in Wellington on 27th April, with the President of the Society, Mr. A. P. Harper, in the chair.

The President admitted hesitation before eccepting the post after such a scientist as Mr. Aston, but recalled that the first President of the Society, the late Sir Thomas Mackenzie, who was an old friend of his was, like himself, more of a practical bushman than a scientist. What he lacked in scientific knowledge, however, was compensated by his intense love of the bush, in which he had spent a large part of his life. He mentioned the almost complete disappearance of bird life in his own life time from districts where he remembered their songs as being almost a nuisance in the early morning.

In moving the adoption of the Report and Balance Sheet, the President mentioned the co-operation between our Society and other organisations in the matter of the Waipoua Forest campaign, and touched on the probable reprinting of the Firest-inhabiting Bird Album in the near future after long delays, and on the special offer of this in loose unbound form which the Society had made to schools and teachers. He regretted the loss of the services

to the Society, owing to ill health, of Mr. G. C. Fache, who was the natural successor to Mr. Aston in the presidency, and praised the work of Mrs. Du Pont on whom fell most of the work of editing the Journal.

Dr. Falla, in seconding the adoption of the Report and Balance Sheet, stated that he considered the Society the most representative and democratic of conservation agencies, other bodies with the same objects being mostly composed of specialists.

Mr. W. S. Wheeler was re-elected Hon. Auditor, and thanks were given him by acclamation.

Thanks were also given to the Treasurer, Mr. T. L. Ward, and the Press, who, Mrs. Du Pont said, always proved helpful and sympathetic in the Society’s efforts to preserve the remnants of our flora and fauna. The President corraborated this, and said that help given by the Press in the campaign for the preservation of Waipoua Forest had been remarkable throughout the Dominion.

At the close of the meeting Dr. Falla gave a most interesting address on “Island Sanctuaries,” which is reported briefly elsewhere in this issue.