MASTERTON FISHPONDS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 823, 23 May 1910, Page 5

MASTERTON FISHPONDS.

NOT TO BE CONTINUED.

Time was (writes our Masterton con respondent) when the Masterton fishponds and hatcheries were the attraction of the town. "Have you seen our fishponds?" was a question which every local resident was proud to ask the visitor. That time has gone. What was once tho pride of the district is no longer a thing of beauty, and the inexorable decree of Fate has determines* that it cannot remain a joy for ever. The fact is that the lease of . the grounds, upon which once figured a fine piscicultural outlook and a bv no means modest aviary, will fall in shortly, ,and it is unlikely that it will.be renewed. Whether there has been a lack of energy on the part of acclimatisation people in the district, or too heavy a . toll exacted by the landlord and the municipality, the fact remains that the fishponds, with their pleasant environment, will soon be a thing of the past. Just how many millions of trout ova. have been hatched in .Masterton, and how many fry have' been liberated in the streams of the Dominion during the past couple of decades, it is impossible to say. The number could not be fat — short of twenty millions. At the present time there are but four thousand yearling trout in the three ponds which are being used, and these will shortly he liberated. Preparations have been completed for the reception of about half . a million ova for the coming season. : Rainbow ova will be obtained from. Rotorua, and brown trout from Catitef- ' bury. For some reason or another the rainbow has not done as well in local streams as the brown trout, Although not a few of the former were captured during ?ast season in the Waingawa River. The streams in the district generally are said to be fairly well stocked with the finny tribe, though the fish.,are somewhat on the small size.. Anglers—of whom there are about seventy in Masterton —have had a very good average season. It is that, on the termination of the lease oi the local grounds, the Wellington Acclimatisation Society will establish hatcheries somewhere in the Rntt Valley.