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bound to recognise that these are necessary functions, 

 that they should be begun, and will have to be developed ; 

 that an immediate nucleus should be formed is my pre- 

 sent claim, in view even of the modest proposals which 

 have arisen on my Japanese studies. Japan in fact 

 already performs all these functions and more. 



8. There is a further and immediate reason for form- 

 ing at once an embryonic Bureau, and that is the 

 necessity for recognizing my office and giving it a proper 

 status. The term of appointment of my assistant and 

 two clerks expires on the 30th June, so that the present 

 is a fitting time for discussing the question. If the work 

 Is to go on, the office must be continued, and, if 

 continued, it must (a) be given a status, (d) enlarged. 



9. Poi7i^ (d). — The establishment of an assistant and 

 two clerks was a purely tentative and guess work 

 arrangement ; the assistant was to help in my tours, the 

 clerks to do the clerical and account work. But as the 

 work took shape, the staff proved insuf^cient ; several 

 series of questions have been scattered broadcast, and 

 the tabulation of the answers is a heavy business : the 

 enormous mass of statistics from the fish-curing yards 

 has been under tabulation, but is too much for the office 

 even if there were no other duties ; I have had to send 

 out the clerks on independent tours of enquiry both 

 to Increase my store of facts and to accustom them to 

 observational work. The F.C.ii monthly returns from 

 the fish-curing yards number annually between 1,500 

 and 1,800 ; in many cases and seasons, they are crammed 

 with figures relating to the places, periods, depths, dis- 

 tances at sea, quantities, stomach contents, prices (fresh 

 and cured) of the catches of a great variety of fishes ; 

 these had been accumulating for some years, and are 

 regularly coming in. If these could be tabulatedj we 

 should at once have — assuming their correctness, and in 

 the main facts this may be assumed — a large body of 

 necessary information as to the seasons and classes of 

 fish, their movements, places of capture, weights caught 

 and prices obtained. Tabulation has been accordingly 

 attempted but the task requires a staff of tabulators of 

 moderate attainments and pay, who will do nothing but 

 tabulate ; for individual fish, such as seer, I have obtained 

 some information but the work is only begun. 



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