234 
PROFESSOR OWEN 
CH. VIII. 
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. ^ ‘ 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 : 
Ch, 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 
copiM of papers published in logical map of New Zealand, 
the Transactto 7 isoft]ieZoologi- showing the localities from 
cal Society between 1844 and whence these fossils were ob- 
1877, with the addition of a tained. 
paper on the ‘ Anatomy of the ^ In a letter to Dr. Pearson 
Apteryx australis^ a plate (life- Langshaw. 
size) of the Notornis, and a geo- 
