H.—1.2

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to sea-birds, surface-swimming fish, eggs, and larva?, and the plankton upon which useful species feed, and to the bottom and shore life of our bays and harbours, at the same time rendering our beaches filthy, insanitary, and unsightly : Therefore be it resolved, That the First Pan-Pacific Food-conservation Conference expresses the wish and the hope that the properly constituted authorities in the countries of the Pacific enter into correspondence for the purpose of bringing about an international treaty or agreement under which such pollution may be prohibited. The trouble arising from pollution by oil is practically almost unknown up to the present time in New Zealand harbours. The number of oil-burning steamers is increasing, however, and it is advisable to be forearmed against any future trouble which may arise from this source. In the North Pacific it has already become a serious menace to coastal fisheries, which in some harbours have been completely destroyed, and steps have been taken by the leading oil corporations to reduce the nuisance as far as possible. As, however, the use of oil in steamers is increasing, and as many firms and individuals have no public conscience in such matters, it is advisable that the Dominion authorities should watch the position closely, and should be ready to co-operate in any international action or agreement which would abolish this danger. P Resolution 19. Resolved, That this Conference recommends to the National Research. Councils of America, Australia, and Japan, through their Governments, as well as to the Governments of British Malaya, China, Indo-China, the Netherlands Indies, New Zealand, and Siam, that there be initiated as early as possible co-ordinated investigations into the question of the occurrence; and distribution of marine borers, as well as into means of combating such organisms. Very little damage has been recorded in New Zealand waters by marine borers, but in Australia the menace is somewhat serious. Information as to the occurrence of these animals and the destruction wrought by them in Dominion waters is to be found in an article by Mr. Charles Hedley in the Report of the; Australasian Association for 1900, Vol. 8, p. 237, and one by Dr. Chilton in the New Zealand Journal of Science and Technology, Vol. 2, p. 3 (1919). Resolution 21. Whereas it is known that many valuable species of marine mammals, such as fur-seals, sea-otters, elephant-seals, and whales, and many species of important food fishes, such as salmon and halibut, formerly occurred in the Pacific in such vast numbers as to constitute the objects of fisheries whose annual products were worth more than one hundred million dollars ; and whereas nearly all of those great natural resources have been seriously depleted, many of them even to commercial extinction, through greed, short-sightedness, and illconsidered fishery methods ; and whereas it is known that small remnants of fur-seal and sea-otter herds, and small numbers of whales and of other commercially valuable species, still remain in certain places ; and whereas the rapid recovery of the Alaska fur-seal herd in the short period of ten years from complete commercial ruin to an annual production of more than a million and a half dollars, as a result of the international fur-seal treaty of 1911, demonstrates conclusively the wonderful recuperative power of such, depleted natural resources of the sea under international co-operation, and justifies the belief that other depleted fur-seal herds and fisheries can be rehabilitated through similar co-operation among the nations concerned ; and whereas it is conservatively estimated that these resources when rehabilitated will yield to the world a regular product of more than half a billion dollars value annually : Therefore be it resolved, That the First Pan-Pacific Food-conservation Conference strongly urges that the various maritime countries of the world, particularly those bordering on or interested in the Pacific, be invited to send delegates to a convention for the purpose of negotiating an international treaty for the restoration, proper utilization, and conservation of the vanishing fur-seal and sea-otter herds and other natural fishery resources of the Pacific ; and be it further resolved, That this Conference recommends that the Governments of the countries bordering on the Pacific enter into correspondence for the purpose of establishing an International Commission for the scientific study of the biology, physics, and chemistry of the Pacific in the interest of the restoration, proper utilization, and conservation of its vanishing natural resources. The subject of this long resolution is an important one to all the Pacific countries. In regard to the extreme North Pacific, an agreement come to by Britain, the United States, Russia, and Japan to protect seals on their respective coast-lines has resulted in the restocking of the Pribilyoff Islands, and other places in the Alaskan seas, by seals and other fur-bearing animals. But this agreement only extends to the three-mile limit from the shore : there is no law by which any of these animals can be protected on the high seas. In southern California a company working from San Diego is at present depleting the seas of whales, and there is no protection, nor any means of stopping the wholesale slaughter which is going on. The destruction of the New Zealand seal-fisheries, and the enormous reduction in the whales in our southern seas, are matters of history. The laws regulating the protection of seals in New Zealand are drastic enough wherever they can be enforced ; but there is no legislation whatever controlling the whale-fishery. If an international agreement could be come to by which the destruction of these valuable marine animals could be scientifically controlled, and their protection assured within reasonable limits, there is considerable ground for hoping that the herds of whales in the South Pacific and Antarctic Oceans could be greatly increased. This is a question in which the aid of the League of Nations might be enlisted.