576 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION D. 
ZOOLOGICAL PAPERS. 
THE PROPOSED BIOLOGICAL STATION AND FISH 
HATCHERY NEAR DUNEDIN, NEW ZEALAND. 
Letter from Mr. G. M. Tuomson to Caprain Herron, 
(Read Tuesday, January 11, 1898.) 
Dunedin, 3lst December, 1897. 
Dear Captain Hutton, 
Tt will, no doubt, interest the members of the Australasian 
Association for the Advancement of Science, and especially its 
Biological Section, to hear an account of the steps which have been 
taken in Dunedin to establish a Marine Fish Hatchery and Bio- 
logical Station. I had hoped to make this communication in 
person, but have not been able to get away to attend the meeting 
in Sydney. However, I have much pleasure in making the facts 
known through you. 
The question was first mooted by me in a paper read before the 
Otago Institute, on 8th October, 1895, entitled “On New Zealand 
Fisheries and the desirability of introducing new species of Sea- 
fish,” in which the suggestion was made that, before any further 
legislation was proceeded with in connection with the fisheries of 
the colony, systematic observation on the habits and life-histories 
of the local species of fish was needed. In order to accomplish 
this, I suggested the establishment of a Marine Biological Station, 
which could further be utilised as a hatchery for such species of 
valuable fishes as it might seem desirable to introduce from other 
parts of the world. Correspondence with Dr. Fulton, of the Scotch 
Fishery Board, led us to believe that it might be possible to intro- 
duce either live fish or ova from a distance. The Otago Institute 
was sufficiently impressed with the apparent feasibility of the plan 
to appoint a Committee to look into the question during the sum- 
mer of 1895-96, and especially to examine and report on Otago 
Harbour and its neighbourhood as to its suitability for such an 
establishment. The Committee reported, in May of the following 
year, that a most suitable site was obtainable at the entrance to 
