234 PROFESSOR OWEN ch. vm. 



Owen relates an amusing interview which he 

 once had with the Income Tax Commissioners 

 on the subject of the supposed profit arising from 

 the sale of his works. 7 ' I was once very much 

 amazed,' he said, ' by receiving notice that the 

 return I had made to the Income Tax Com- 

 missioners was to be surcharged. I had made a 

 perfectly honest return, and felt indignant that my 

 figures should be disputed. I was told that I 

 might appeal on a certain day and hour at the 

 Board Room. I arrived at the time stated, at 

 some inconvenience to myself — for I was very 

 busy — and found that it would be at least an 

 hour before I could be heard. I spent the time 

 in an untidy old churchyard, just under the 

 Board Room windows, and occupied myself in 

 reading inscriptions, &c. When my turn came 

 I expressed my surprise at the notice I had 

 received. The chairman said, with much suavity : 

 " Oh, Professor Owen, we know that you have 

 published some important works, and we thought 

 perhaps you might have forgotten to mention the 

 proceeds in your return!" I assured him I had 

 forgotten nothing, produced what evidence I 



copies of papers published in logical map of New Zealand, 



the Transactions of the Zoologi- showing the localities from 



cat Society between 1844 and whence these fossils were ob- 



1877, with the addition of a tained. 



paper on the ' Anatomy of the 7 In a letter to Dr. Pearson 



Apteryx anstralis] a plate (life- Langshaw. 



size) of the Notomis, and a geo- 



