25 
is very urgent, since Fisheries legislation is blocked for 
want of the information which such investigations alone 
can give. 
* A scheme of scientific work has been carried out for 
some years on board the ‘John Fell, but the observations 
—although useful for many purposes—have been neither 
sufficiently numerous nor sufficiently regular to admit of 
reliable conclusions as to the abundance, movements, and 
life-histories of the fish being drawn. Now that a more 
efficient steamer has been obtained, I would urge strongly 
upon the Committee the importance—and even necessity 
—if we are to make any advance in our knowledge of 
how and where fishes live in the sea, of devoting a certain 
amount of the steamer’s time to the taking of regular 
periodic observations at fixed points according to a 
definite plan. 
* After full consideration of what is desirable and what 
is possible in our District, with a steamer which has also 
to carry out police and other administrative duties, I have 
drawn up the following, which I believe to be a workable 
scheme, and one which is calculated to give us the kind 
of information we require as a basis for the just and 
adequate regulation and administration of our District. 
“TT venture to think that if some such plan of observa- 
ticns had been adopted fifty or even twenty years ago, it 
is not too much to say that the results would be invaluable 
at the present day to the Naturalist and to the Fisheries 
Administrator alike. In face of the statistics so acquired, 
many of our Fisheries questions could not have arisen. 
There could no longer be doubt as to whether a particular 
Fishery, or Coast Fisheries in general, had or had not 
declined ; as to whether the destruction of immature dabs 
benefitted or not the neighbouring population of young 
plaice; as to whether solenettes can possibly interfere 
