H.—ls

14

" General. —Both cottages, hatchery buildings, workshops, and engine-house have received two coats of paint on the outside. Several rooms in the cottages have been papered and painted. All the paths and steps have been given a top-dressing of tar and sand. The slip-winch has been bedded in concrete, and a new and stronger slipway and carriage have been built to carry the new launch. A new concrete tank, measuring 15 ft. by 5 ft. 6 in. by 2 ft. 6 in., has been constructed in the hatchery. The metal and sand used have, as usual, been obtained from the foreshore. No outside labour has been employed during the year. Messrs. Miller Bros, are proceeding with the construction of the new launch, and it is expected that she will be ready for use about the end of April. It is hoped that the full detailed report of observations for the past eleven years will be ready for publication in a month or so. " I am, &c, " T. Anderton." In addition to the demand on the men's time, it was found impossible to do research work outside Otago Heads, as the launch " Rautaia " was not strong enough to go with safety outside the harbour-limits. It was therefore decided to get a new launch built by Messrs. Miller Bros., of Port Chalmers, and this boat has now been delivered, and is in every way satisfactory. She is 36 ft. long, is furnished with a 7 horse-power oil-engine, and is constructed for fishing as well as dredging and other collecting work. The after part is fitted with tanks for holding live fish; a winch and pulley working from the oil-engine control the trawl-nets, of which two have been purchased by the Board; and when a dredge, tow-nets, thermometers, and a soundingapparatus has been added she will be fitted to undertake excellent scientific work. The Board has ordered a supply of fish-marking tags from Canada. I have, &c., Geo. M. Thomson, Chairman, Marine Fish-hatchery Board. The Secretary, Marine Department, Wellington.

Ihe Nautical Adviser to the Secretary, Marine Department, Wellington. Sir, — Marine Department, Wellington, 12th April, 1916. I have the honour to submit my annual report on the examination of masters and mates in New Zealand for the year ended in March last. The work, as usual, has been carried out by the Examiners at the four principal ports in a satisfactory manner. I visited the Auckland examination-room in January of this year and found everything in very good order. I was particularly pleased with the very efficient arrangements which had been made to completely darken the examination-room for the lantern-sight test by the use of large well-fitting black shutters on hinges, enabling tho change to be made from light to dark and vice versa very quickly. In January of this year the use of wools for testing colour-blindness was done away with. From June, 1914, to January, 1916, both wools and lantern have been used in the colour-vision tests, and no less than three candidates who passed well in the form vision, and also passed the wool test, failed badly in the lantern test. The special eye-doctors who conducted the appeal in one case put the defect down to excessive smoking. No candidate who already holds a certificate of competency is now examined in colour vision. From January of this year all candidates for home-trade and foreign-going certificates are expected to be able to send and read Morse signals at the rate of five words a minute, and to send and read semaphore signals at the rate of eight words a minute. The only late change in the clerical part of our examination has been tho adoption of a new Admiralty tide-table, in which a different system of tabulating the tides is now used. Owing to the war and consequent depletion of officers, the number of examinations has been comparatively small during the last two years. The increase in the number of examinations this year over the previous year, which was unusually small, only amounts to 12 per cent., and the increase in the number of successful passes only amounts to 9 per cent., the number of failures this year being 44 per cent., against 42 per cent, last year. There has been no candidate during the year for the extra-master examination. I have, &c, H. S. Blackburne, Principal Examiner of Masters and Mates. The Secretary, Marine Department, Wellington.