n presenting this, our Twentieth Annual Report, to yon, before passing on to review the work of the past year, we have to record with deep regret the loss of one of our most active and zealous members. Our late secretary, Mr. William Arthur, died on the 3rd of August last, after an illness of but a few days. The interest Mr. Arthur took in acclimatisation matters is well known to us all, and it is in a great part owing to his untiring zeal that so great a measure of success has attended our operations in recent years, and that the work of this Society, especially in regard to pisciculture, has acquired more than a local reputation.

During the past year our operations have as a matter of necessity been almost entirely confined in piscicultural channels; indeed, for many years to come we fear that any attempts at the propagation of winged game will be futile, owing, in the first place, to the poisoned grain spread over the whole face of the country, and in the second place to the increase of the natural enemies of the rabbit, which are, unfortunately, also the natural enemies of the feathered friends we desire so much to see established among our fields and covers. On this account, therefore, our attention must be almost entirely devoted to the stocking of our waters fresh and salt with the inhabitants suitable to them and valuable to the community. In this direction, however, we have accomplished, and there is still ample room for the expenditure of our energies, for, to speak of nothing else, the salmon and the berring have yet to be numbered among the fishes of New Zealand.