ACCLIMATISATION SOCIETY.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2214, 31 March 1881, Page 3

ACCLIMATISATION SOCIETY.

An ordinary meoting of tho Council of the Canterbury Acclimatisation Society was held on Wednesday afternoon at 3 30 at the Commercial Hotel, Cathedral square. Present— Hon. J. T. Peacock (intheohoir).Dr. Britten, Messrs H. E. Webb, J. 0. Boys, Hill, and S. O. Farr, Hon. Seo.

A telegram was read from Mr Fulbert Archer to the effect that the South Cantorbury Acclimatisation Society were determined to send a party to the Opihi Gorge to investigate the salmon question, and asking that the nets, &c, used tor the Waimakariri experiments be forwarded on the first opportunity, as it was wished to settlo tho question before the river was flooded. The Secretary reported having made arrangements to forward the nets, &c, by Thursday morning's express. Application having been recently made by the Hunt Club to course hares in April, the aooretary wrote to Wellington asking for the required permission, to which a telegram in reply was read from the Colonial Secretary's office, stating that it could not bo allowed, and roferring the Society to section 3 of the Animals Protection Act, 1880, on the subject. Mr W. L. Fowler, of Stanley Vale, wrote advising the society that he had forwarded ■even paradise ducks. The Chairman stated that these were to be ■ent to Mr Jamraob, and he would suggest that arrangements he made with the New Zealand Shipping Oj. for their despatch by the Orari, as he felt sure Captain Mosey would see that every attention was paid to them during the passage. Mr O. J. Tripp, of Orari, wrote oomplaining that the hares were very destructive in his neighborhood, one of his turnip fields presenting the appearance of having been fed off by ■heep, and stating further that he thought all restrictions to thoir destruction should be removed. The Secretary Baid that Mr Tripp should have written to the South Canterbury Acclimatisation Society on the matter, seeing that he lived south of the Bangitata. Ho had written Mr Tripp to that effect. The Secretary of tho Otago Acclimatisation Society wrote, acknowledging receipt of sketch of a Californian salmon, and also of a fish in ice, for examination. As regarded the first, he considered it answored to Lord's description of Sulmo quinnat, and that the fish in ice was closely allied to Balmo trutta, being possibly a hybrid with Salmo fario, but he believed it was a Salmo fario, or fresh water trout, that had lived in brackish water. A further communication of a lengthy nature was read from the same gentleman, as follows : Dunedin, March Ist, 1881. S. C. Farr, Esq., Hon. Secretary, Canterbury i Acclimatisation Society. i

Dear Sir, —My attention has beon drawn to three letters publishol in tho " Timaru Herald" by Dr. Chilton, on large trout in our rivers. These letters are from Mr Francis Francis of London, Mr Hammond of Winchester, and Mr Thnrlow of High Wycombe, all written in last December. The giat of these is, that large male trout, from alb. upwards, are found in English rivers to destroy multitudes of the young of their own species, to become ultimately lean and nseleas, and only fit to bo destroyed ; and farther, that if we in New Zealand are wise, we also will destroy all male trout exceeding 51b. in weight. _ Now, nn I h-ivo had some experience of tront in Home waters, and have likewise taken some interest in their habits and growth in New Zealand waters, 1 trust yon 'will not deem me tiresome if I bring a few observations and facts to your notice on the other aide of the question. In a word I have a plea (as the lawyers say) in arrest of judgment, even when pronounced by Buck excellent authorities aa the above-named gentlemen. And first of all, it seems to me rather hrnty to expect tront in New Zealand to follow precisely the same habits as in their native Knglish rivers. For not only ia Naw Zealand in a different hemisphere, bnt in mean latitude it is 13 degrees nearer the equator than the mean latitude of England and Scotland. That moans not only that in situation it ia nearer the sun, in ordinary phraseology, bnt the climate is different and the Beaaons ore totally different. Here winter and summer are blended into each other, giving more uniformity in, and greater mildnesa of seasons. As a consequence the snpuly of insect food dues not suffer so great a cessation as at Home. Moreover, the snpply, not only of insect food, bnt of other food, native to our streams, as the shellfish, crayfish, and migratory smelts and silverfisb, ia much more abundant than in England. These circumstances alone ought to lead any one to look for some variation in tbe habits and growth of trout. And what do we find ? 1 refer to our experience in Otagoi -English tront were successfully planted in onr rivers in 1869 eleven years ago. Angling began in 1871, thus giving fishers and others the opportunity of E radically examining and watching the?e fish. I ave myself used this means of observation, and have besides had the benefit of Beeing and studying the operations of fish culture ob carried out by onr local society. Id their first stages of existence (the production of the ova from the parent fish) there is a difference. That occurs Bix weeks later here than at Home, reckoning our time to correspond with December in North latitude. In other words, the t:n>e of spawning is later, and the periods from impregnation to the eye appearing, and from the eye appearing to the time of hatching, are just of double the dnr ttion that they are at Home. But curiously enough, when our tront are liberated in the rivers here and have io provide for themselves, there is again a difference, not in the backwardness, aa before, bnt in the great rapidity of their growth. They average from lib. to 21b. of yearly increase in weight, while the average English trout only reaches J of a lb. yearly. Then, aa to their timea of feeding, we see something new. In most of our rivers that is in the forenoon and about mid-day, when the sun usually is blazing brightly in a clear blue sky—the very time when insect life ia most aotive, and tin aupply of surface food moat obtainable by the trout-. This, I think, indicates a preference for inßects on the pirt of the trout, though they feed at other times also. These last facts «11 point to this —the probability of onr trout feeding on flies, animals, and small fish native to tho streams, in preference to the young of their own species, which I may add are much swifter in their movements to elude pursuers than the whitebait or silverfish. And this ia just what years of personal observation have proved to be the case —both for male and female trout—at least so far as I have seen. In proof of which I will hero insert the_ following results of actual specimens examined by me:—

November 30th, 1877, male tront, river Lee, weight 51b.; contents of stomach— crayfishes, parts of grasshopper and beetle. December 7th, male trout, Shag, 51b 2oz—remains of one or two minnows.

December 19th, male trout, Shag, s i lb—part of one small minnow.

January 19th, 1878, female trout, Lee, 21b—shellfish and end id bait plentiful, larvse, leg of crayfish, and two stones. February Bth, male trout, Beep Stream, .'l.'lb —crayfish, beetles, flies. February Bth, female trout, Beep Stream, 4Jlb— crayfish, green beetles, and flies. March 2nd—female trout. Broad Creek, "Jib —cadis bait, lurvtu, ono small shellfish, short bits of grass and rashes. March 29th, 1879, female trout, Knriwoo, 1 Jib —a few lurTto and shellfish. July 25th, female trout, Loith, 61b—white mucus only (fish died at spawning). November 14th, female trout, Waiwera, 51b — flies and one or two lame. November 28th, male trout. Waiwera, 3|lb—crayfish, larvte, shellfish and flies. March 26th, 1880, male trout, Beep Stream, 31b —beetles, grasshoppers, and n few small atones. October 22nd, female trout, Lee, 1 Jib— large quantity of flies, five large creepers. October 23rd, female trout, Lee, 3|lb —flies, ■creepers, Bhellfiah, larva;; Btomoch very full. December 30th, female trout. Wi»iwera, 2Jlb —crayfish different sizes, very full. February 14th, 188!, mala trout, Deep Stream, 41b—small trout din long. February lltb, mole trout, Deep Stream, 31b—very full of crickets end grasthoppers. The only specimen in above table about which there is any doubt is the male trout caught on February 14th, 1881. This one was opened not by myself (as ail the others wore), but by somebody else—so it is not certain from which trout's Btomach the small trout was takeD. Although I believed it to be from a female, I hare given to the males the responsibility—as I do not desire any advantage in my argument. Here, then, we have saventeen trout, in the proportions of eight males and nine females— taken out of seven different rivers, and in only one caBO dooa a solitary trout fall a prey to a large trout. The male ami the female, about which I am in doubt a» the captor of the Bmall trout, were both taken in the rorky gorge far up the Deep Stream in the Lammerlaws The situation was not favorable to an abundance of surface food, and noither fish boiog fat theconclasion is reasonable that hunger alone compelled the large trout to Beize the smaller ono. The condition of the malo trout examined generally was fair, and in some esses they wore fat. ' n the othar hand, there are cises of males whicn aro taken here very low and lean in condition. Thoso have been found not merely in barren rocky g rges, bat in rivers teeming with food such as the Shag River, and near othor large trout in the finest order. I can only account for this on the supposition that they havo become diseas'd through injaries received at the spawning season: or by not getting mated. Some, at the came time, may have taken up their haunts in pools where food was scarce. And a certain amount of corroboration is given to the former Apposition, by the cireamstanoe thai the

females far exceed the males in number. _ Of twenty-four spawning fish on one occasion, July, 1880, we found there were only throe or four maleß—indeed we find considerable difficulty at the spawning season in securing a sufficient number of males. I have constantly this disparity in the Boxes when angling, and it did not make any great difference whether I fished with fly, bait, or artificial minnow. For instance, on March 26th, 1880, I had thirteen trout from £lb to 341 b in weight, which I caught with grasshoppers in the Deep Stream, among which I could only distinguish two undoubted males. In conclusion' while I admit that hungry, lean males may as well be destroyed in our rivers—experience, as yet, of the trout in Otago streams does anything but warrant their wholesale condemnation. My theory of large male trout is, that they will not proy on the young of their own species so long as ether food is abundant. — I am, &c, W. Arthur;

P.B. —T forgot to mention that a_ male trout was caught in the Upper Taieri river, at the mouth of the Logan burn, 1800 feot above sea levol, in October, 1880, by two gentlemen from Duneilin of my acquaintance. It was 81b3 in weight, and a romarkably short, fat, well-con-ditionnd fish, which, when cooked, was found to bo full of curd, and almost as rich as a salmon

to eat. You are qmte at liberty to make what uao you please of above letter. On the motion of Mr J. 0. Boys, seconded by Mr Hill, hearty votes of thanks were unanimously aocorded to Dr. Chilton and the secretary of the Otago society for the very great trouble they had taken in the matter. Mr J. C. Boys asked why the Salmo fontinulis, or American brook trout, had not yet been imported from San Francisco. In his opinion it was preferable to the white fish, being in great favor at Home, large quantities having been imported there from America.

The Secretary explained that at a recent meeting a letter was read from Mr Oroighton, mentioning certain causes that prevented the ova of this fish being sent.

Tho Chairman thought it possible that Mr Creighton had since forwarded a consignment, which even now was on its way. Mr Boys moved, and it was resolved—- " That another letter be sent to Mr Creighton, asking him why this matter had fallen through. This being all the business, the Council adjourned.