ACCLIMATIZATION SOCIETY.

Evening Star, Issue 3418, 4 February 1874, Page 2

ACCLIMATIZATION SOCIETY.

A special meeting of the Council was held this afternoon. There were present, Messrs Murison (in the chair), Reid, Sheunan, Mathews, Hepburn, Oliver, and Deans (manager).

The Chairman remarked that although there had been no meetings of the Council lately, they had been by no means idle. In toe matter of the liberation of trout, far instance, he believed that every stream of any importance within a reasonable distance of Dune.iin was now supplied with trout. The special object of th-. meeting was to take r-teps to secure the Government bonus by raisirg subscriptions. He Lud no doubt those who had benefitted by the liberation of the trout would be willing to subecribe. Mr Heid had handed to him a letter from Mr Ewen on the subject of procuring black game from Captain Horatio Rosa, who it would be remembered had expressed his willingness to rear these birds on his estate in the Highlands for the Society, if the latter made the necessary arrangements for shipping them. Mr Ewen had communicated with Captain Ross; but it would be seen from the following extract from his letter that he had not been successful up to the present:— In re acclimatization, please intimate to the members of the committee of the Society that, although I h.ive been silent, I have not been forgetful of their commission. Although I cannot report that I am likely to be able to do much forthem this season—certainly nothing with crabs and lobsters—for the simple reason that I gather that to ship them would be just (to almost) a certainty to waste the funds of the Society, as there is no prospect of their surviving the voyage. My authority, &c., I shall give when I write officially to Mr Murison. Black game have been a complete failure this year, there not being on plenty of the moors as many as there was at the end of last season. My only hope now is that of getting some from Norway ; and to a dealer I have offered LSO for ten brace, provided he can get them them there for me ; but as yet have heard nothin" from him, although it is some mouths since I gave the order, TROUT FOR TARANAKI. A telegram was read from the Deputy Superinten lent of Plymouth, asking for ti one. 1c was agreed to send 140 trout free of cost, aud to inform Mr Compton that some ova pould be supplied to Taranaki next year.

PERCH FISHING AT THE RESERVOIR. The Chairman remarked that the members were doubtless aware that during the past year the perch in the Water Company’s reservoir had developed to a great size andiu great numbers. Fishing, however, was restricted, the Water Company only allowing permission to fisli. He had had more than one conversation with the directors, and had to them that the Society, which was originally instrumental in procuring the fish, should issue tickets to fish—to which the directors had agreed—and that the charge for those tickets should be handed over to the funds of the Society. By this means the Society might be able to procure more fish of a suitable kind to be put into the reservoir and other places. He moved, Tnat the Waterworks Company be requested to allow tickets to be issued for perch fishing in the reservoir, such tickets to be for a year or season, and a charge of 5s to be made for each ticket, the amount to be handed to the funds of the Society”— Carried.” J

SALMON. The following letter from the secretary of the Southland Acclimatization Society was read

I have the honor, by instruction of the Committee of the Southland Acclimatization Society, to acknowledge receipt of the pamphlets forwarded by your Society on the propagation of salmon, and to thank the Society for the same. The subject has been under consideration and a question has arisen in reference to which we should be glad of the opinion of your Society, or such information as you have been or may be able to obtain as to whether the Californian (Oregon) salmon is a fish affording sport in the taking. This is a matter upon which some difference of opinion exists here, and is, as you are aware, an object in the consideration of the question. We shall be glad to hear from you, and in the meantime shall be happy to serve your Society in any way in which occasion may arise. The Chairman thought it would be far better if more attention could be given to producing a really good fish, which, in time to come, would be an article of food greatly consumed by the inhabitants. He would state the causes that had led him to change his views oa this subject. The greatest area of fresh water in the Province was afforded by our lakes, while the best rivers we had were almost unsuited to fish. Take the' Ciutha, for example. It was our largest river, but he had no doubt that no fish of any kind could live there iu great numbers. Un the other hand, when they came to look at the great area taken up by our lakes, and when they thought that in certain parts of Europe and America some of the fish that there exist were lake fish, and that persons on the borders of these lakes not only lived to a great extent on the fish, but also exported them, in the same >way that herrings and herrings and other sea fish were—ought they not to make provision for stocking our fresh water area with a better and larger supply of fish, so that when the population became larger it might be provided with fish that would be an article of food, instead of devoting so much time to the propagation of salmon? Gf course, the question was too extensive a one for the society to take up, and the Government should be asked to obtain the. best information as to the kinds of lake fish best suited to our lakes, the temperature, &c., of which should be ascertained. That done, he was pretty sure that any attempt to stock our lakes with a good supply of fish would be much better than spending money on almost useless attempts to acclimatize salmon, for which our rivers were unsuitable. He was satisfied we would never get salmon in sufficient numbers to render them of any great value to the country. These remarks were not hastily made ; it was a question that he had not only read abouo but had considered very carefully. la England, lauded proprietors who owned bits of lake country had imported lake fish from America in large numbers, and had been very successful. This was mainly brought about by the efforts of Mr deth Green and other American pisciculturists, while Messrs Buckland, Francis, and others at Home had recommended th at the same course should be taken, in some of the European lakes were fresh water salmon—a very valuable fish —that went in shoals unlike river salmon. But these were mere matters of detail. What he wished to direct attention to was that our lakes had not been properly utilised, and he contended that inquiry should be made in the matter.

Mr Oliver, while admitting the great value and truth of the Chairman’s observations, was loth to think that the salmon experiment was to be regard as a failure. Although the rivers of this Province might not be quite so suitable to the breeding of salmcn, or for salmon fisheries, as they could wish, there were rivers in other Provinces and in the North Island, which were far more suitable than our Provincial rivers. It would be a pity if anything that transpired at that meeting, or in connection with their Society, should damp the ardor of either the Government or private individuals in seeking to esteblish salmon as a New Zealand fish. It was quite within the proper scope of the Society, either by their own action or by suggesting to the Government to seek to establish lake fish. It was a matter which had possibly been too long neglected, and it would be proper for the Society to do all they could within the limits of their funds and strength to urge consideration being given to it, without at all inducing the Government to withhold their hands from the salmon experiment. The Chairman explained that that was his idea. He merely wished to point out that the salmon experiment had caused them to lose sight of another direction for successful acclimatisation. He would communicate with Mr Bucklaud on the subject. The following letter from Mr A. Cairns was read :

Referring to the letter received from London recently in the Home papers as to a scheme tor enclosing salmon ova in streams being easily protected from the voracious fish tribe, I drew the attention of MrM'Kerrow, Chief Surveyor, who knows much as to the capabilities of our rivers for this purpose. Ho is of opinion the Akatore would suit admirably. Mr Richard Gillies, he thinks, could afford better information than any one else in the town in regard to it. I would beg to suggest that in the absence of him, being unable to speak positively on the point, I have no doubt were Mr J. L. Gillies, of Tokomairiro, written to on the subject, he could obtain every information needful on so desirable a matter. This river has many branches, deriving their sources in high elevations. MISCELLANEOUS. It was suggested by Mr Oliver that as a line of ships was about to be established between Hon* Kong or Shanghai and Dunedin, it would be advisable to get stock and plants from those places.—The Zoological Society of Loudon returned thanks for the Society’s present of two Weka rails and a sheldrake.