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not too great a stretch of the imagination to suppose that at no- 

 very distant date our wattle bark industry may be seriously 

 affected by a stunted condition of the trees, due to a large in- 

 crease of galls. Whether Mr. Tepper's explanation is the correct 

 one or not, matters not for my purpose. I have used it as an 

 illustration for the desirability, I might say the necessity, for 

 careful observation of the habits of our native birds in relation 

 to insect life. If we knew more about these we should be in a 

 much better position to advise remedial measures for insect pests 

 with some hope of success. 



Before concluding I should like to draw your attention to 

 another matter totalh' unconnected with agriculture, in which I 

 take some personal interest, and which is also of great importance 

 to the material prosperity of Australia. I refer to the fisheries 

 question. There can be no doubt that in many places fish are 

 much scarcer than they used to be. Are there any remedies 1 I 

 venture to say, yes. In the first place the habits of the various 

 fish need to be carefully studied by trained observers, and 

 that is the onl}' way to obtain reliable information. Com- 

 missions of untrained men, however qualified they may be in 

 other respects, who travel from place to place, and examine a 

 few fishermen here and there, will never do any real good. In 

 an article in the " Contemporary" for July of this year, under the 

 name of Mathias Dunn, the writer refers to the enormous 

 numbers of eggs laid by a mature fish, and to a belief which exists 

 in some minds that only a small proportion of these eggs 

 are ever hatched out. He says that by actual observation in 

 some cases, he has proved that the vast majority of the eggs 

 do hatch out (and it is reasonable to suppose that this is 

 true in other cases) but that enormous numbers are destroyed 

 while in a young and helpless condition. He instances the case 

 of the turbot, which lays from two to twelve millions of eggs, 

 according to the maturity of tho parent. These fish leave the 

 deep sea and spawn from three to five miles from the shore. 

 The young fish make their way to the surface of the water 

 to within about 100 yards of the shore, where they spend the 

 first twelve months of their life. The mortality in passing 

 over this narrow strip of sea is tremendous. They are attacked 

 by birds from above and fish from below, and but a small 

 proportion ever reach their destination. During a recent visit 

 to Encounter Bay I was informed by the fishermen that a 

 short time ago, when the barracoota were abundant on the 

 coast, they had observed enormous numbers of minute fish (of 

 what kind they did not know) near the surface of the water 

 They were being devoured in myriads both by gulls and barra- 

 coota, the latter being full of them. Something, therefore, 



