THE LATE IMPORTATION OF SALMON OVER.

Dunstan Times, Issue 580, 30 May 1873, Page 3

THE LATE IMPORTATION OF SALMON OVER.

—o— The ship Oberon, which arrived the other day at Port Chalmers, from London, brought a large shipment of salmon ova. Regarding it the Lyttelton Times says : r J he ova on this occasion was obtained to the order of the General Government from the Stormontfield hatching establishments on the Tay, Scotland, which is admittedly the best place in Gicat Britain for the purpose. Having been p’aecd in boxes containing a few hundred each, they were conveyed by train to Lou lon. the care exercise 1 ai route bein ' such that each parcel was supported by hand in order to prevent jar. Unfortunately the arrangements for shipping were not of tho best, for some of the boxes wore to band upwards of three weeks before tho vessel sailed. An ice house for the reception of the ova had been constructed in the forelmld of the vessel, and about twenty tons of ice were used in packing around the boxes to keep the temperature down. The Oberon sailed on the 23rd of January, and arrived at Port Chalmers on Friday last, the voyage having thus occupied one hundred days. The Curators of the Canterbury and Invercargill Society having been sent to Otago to await the arrival of the Oberon, they lost no time in go’ng on board, where they succeeded in making arrangements for getting the ova out on.the following day, Unfortunately the vessel had powder on board, and could not be brought up to one of the wharves, thus a lighter had to he used. Tho two curators each packed their portion according to their respective ideas upon the matter. The Invercargill ova appeared, however, to be somewhat carelessly dealt with in this respect, the boxes being merely placed in a large case, .and covered with ice and straw, whilst cases about 4ft. by 3ft. and 3ft. deep, bad been specially made for the Canterbury portion of the shipment, each case being lined with zinc, over which was a coating of flannel to prevent the ice melting. Then, again, tho ova boxes were fixed m tight with horsehair, and ice, added to which the cases containing the boxes were covered on the outside with malting, so as to resist tho power of the sun. Mr. Johnson also took care to do his packing as near the ice house as possible, and ho states that he received tho greatest assistance in his work from tho first officer of the ship, who placed a number of pictures unreservedly at his disposal. Time being of importance, work was kept up until after nine o’clock on Saturday night, and that it was by no means of a light character, will be gathered from the fact that the blocks of ice—most of which had to be thrown overboard—were three and four feet square. After the packing bad been completed, the Southland ova was despatched by a steamer which had to be specially chartered for the purpose, while the cases containing the Canterbury boxes of ova were placed on board the s.s. Alhambra, being suspended by india-rubber slings, ,in order to prevent jar of any kind affecting the precious freight. In this and all other work connected with the undertaking, Mr. Johnson received very valuable aid from Mr. Richard Quin and Mr. Deans, Curator of the Otago Acclimatisation Society.