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Madras has the honour of having led the way 

 throughout in fishery work ; Dr. Day was a Madras man, 

 first employed by the then Madras Government to study 

 its fisheries ; later on (1905) the Madras Government 

 revived the subject and instituted investigations which 

 are not only bearing local results but have been elsewhere 

 followed. Madras established the first tropical aquarium 

 — except that in Honolulu- and has already shown 

 therein some of the wonderful animals which live in its 

 waters ; now that the aquarium is to be developed in size 

 it should also be developed in scope, in importance, and 

 in usefulness. 



8. (b) The direct association of ^' Fisheries'' with t,he 

 aqiiariuin and its advantages. — Mr. Hornell, in his revised 

 plan, suggests that the whole upper storey of the new 

 aquarium should be the home of the Fisheries Depart- 

 ment. He proposes that the upper storey should 

 comprise a good laboratory, a technical museum and 

 library for the use of students and staff, and office rooms, 

 the whole of the ground fioor being devoted to the 

 aquarium proper. The proposal connotes a direct 

 connection of the Fisheries Department with the 

 administration and working of the aquarium. I consider, 

 with Mr. Hornell. that the connection will be for the 

 financial, administrative and practical benefit both of 

 the aquarium proper, of the Fisheries Department, and 

 of special education for staff and students. 



9. At present " Fisheries " has not even a habita- 

 tion, still less a laboratory or biological equipment as 

 in all other countries, except Great Britain where the 

 Fishery Departments are mainly for statistical or 

 regulative purposes. We have in Madras a couple of 

 rooms which are all very well so long as the office is 

 a mere clerical staff engaged in keeping accounts and 

 writing letters ; the Cannanore station is concerned with 

 manufacturing questions, and Tuticorin with pearls and 

 chanks. But if investigation work, including both 

 scientific research and practical experiment, and educa- 

 tional work in various branches, are to be carried on, 

 even on the most modest scale, " Fisheries " must have 

 a domicile. Moreover, for the educational work men- 

 tioned in paragraph 5 supra, viz., the preparation and 

 issue of complete sets of zoological specimens for the 

 use of colleges, schools, museums, savants and students, 



