SALMON FOR NEW ZEALAND.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 392, 14 September 1875, Page 3

SALMON FOR NEW ZEALAND.

Mr James A. Youl writes as follows to the Times of July 14th:—In the Times of to-day I notice a letter from Mr Frank Buckland giving an account of the failure of the splendid shipment of salmon ova made by him in the Timaru. I fully sympathise with him in the want of success in this his first attempt to send salmon eggs to the Antipodes. I made two great failures, before I succeeded, and am not, therefore, surprised that he has determined not to be discouraged, but to try again. Mr Buckland refers to the success of trout eggs collected by himself and Mr Francis Francis and packed by .me ; he ‘might have added also the great success attending the packing of the ova of their confreres — the “ Salmo salar ” and the “ Salmo trutta;” and I would venture to suggest to him the packing oi, at least, a part of his next venture in the way in which I have packed those shipped by myself. Mr Buckland has been present on several occasions at the Docks and seen me pack my boxes and stow them away in the ice-house, and he has also been present several times when some of these boxes, which have been taken away and stowed in the vaults of the Wenham Lake Ice Company for 100 days and then opened, and taken away at different times several hundreds of the eggs and successfully hatched them. He is, therefore, perfectly acquainted with the plan so successfully adopted by me, and it seems a pity not to take advantage of it in any future shipment he may make. Any one carefully reading Mr Backhand's letter would come to the conclusion that there are no salmon in New Zealand at this moment; but this is not the fact. In all human probability the salmon as well as the trout is already naturalised in the rivers of that colony. So long ago as 1869 above 500 beautifully grown salmon smolts wore liberated from the breeding ponds made of a tributary of the Molyneux River, in the Province of Otago ; and about twelve months ago a grilse weighing upwards of 31b was caught in the Molyneux river, no doubt the offspring of one of the smolts liberated in 1869. In a letter received on Monday last from Mr Howard, the curator of the Southland Acclimatisation Society, he mentions he had just paid a visit to the Wallace Town pond, and was delighted to see the young salmon in it ; they rose beautifully to food thrown in to them ; and he was anxiously awaiting the time when they would put on their silvery smolt dress, preparatory to their perilous journey to the sea. I have also news that the young salmon are doing very well at Canterbury. I need hardly add that from Hobart Town I am constantly receiving letters to the effect that there are plenty of salmon in the Derwent. The eggs which produced every living trout, salmon, and salmon trout now swimming in the rivers of the several Australian and New Zealand colonies were all packed by my own hands in those little boxes to which I have referred, with the exception of a few boxes packed when I was tired, but under my own supervision, by the Messrs Ramsbottom. On several occasions persons have packed ova in boxes and in moss on their own plan, and I have placed them side by side in the ice-house with mine; but in no one instance has a single ovum of their packing arrived alive at the Antipodes. It is from this experience I have ventured to recommend, not only Mr Buckland, but every one who makes the attempt to ship the ova of salmon to Australia, to pack, at all events, a part of the shipment in the manner which has proved so very successful.