536 Transactions. 



at Portobello." Mr. Thomson was appointed secretary and 

 convener, and a grant of £30 was placed at their disposal. This 

 amount was supplemented later by the sum of £10 — portion of 

 an unexpended vote for marine biological research granted at 

 the Hobart meeting. 



At a meeting of the Board held on the 8th February, 1904, 

 Mr. T. Anderton was appointed curator of the station, and the 

 Board has had every reason since to congratulate itself on the 

 appointment. The maintenance grant of £250 a year from the 

 Government came into effect on the 1st April of the same year. 



The total cost of the excavations, buildings, and fittings 

 up to November, 1904, was £1,448. Towards this total the 

 Government contributed £850, having voted £250 as a special 

 grant over and above the £600 formerly promised ; the two 

 local societies each contributed £250 ; and calls were made on 

 nearly all the acclimatisation societies of the colony for assist- 

 ance. The following alone responded : Waitaki and Waimate 

 Acclimatisation Society, £50 ; and the Hawke's Bay Accli- 

 matisation Society, £25. The Canterbury Society expressed 

 its readiness to assist with a donation as soon as the Board 

 undertook the introduction of food fishes ; and the Ashburton 

 Society has also promised to give a sum fro rata as the other 

 societies in Canterbury give. Financial assistance may be ex- 

 pected from several of the other societies when once the objects 

 of the station are more fully understood, and the importance 

 of the work undertaken is better appreciated. 



The only remaining point to note in connection with the 

 history of this movement is that Captain Fleming resigned his 

 position on the Board in July, 1905, on his removal to Auckland, 

 and that Captain Norman Beaumont, who succeeded him as 

 Superintendent of Mercantile Marine, was appointed to the 

 vacant position on the Board. 



II. Descriptive. 



The site selected for the fish-hatchery is at the north-west 

 extremity of Quarry Point, the peninsula which projects half- 

 way across Otago Harbour from Portobello. At no very remote 

 date the upper and lower harbours were probably entirely 

 separated from one another by an elevated rocky barrier, through 

 which subsecmently three channels have been formed, leaving 

 Quarantine Island and Goat Island as the connecting-links 

 which unite the Portobello side with Port Chalmers. A glance 

 at the sketch-map (Plate LVII) shows the relative position of 

 the headlands, islands, and dividing channels. 



While the whole area of the harbour is probably undergoing 

 silting-up, in large part due to the elevation of the east coast of 



