TROUT POSIONED

Hokitika Guardian, 6 March 1922, Page 4

TROUT POSIONED

AVON DEl’Llvl'E’n OF HENDHEDg Oh' FI Bit. :

(Cli ristolui fell Press). Much interest \va s paused in the city on Friday by the presence of many ■hundreds of dead and dying trout in the Avon. About 11.30 a.m. two boys in the Public ( burdens noticed that hundreds of dead fish were “being carried down the stream. At about 1.30 p.m. the river was packed with mountain and rainbow trout, either floating stone-dead or struggling feebly in the water, l'lhisi phenomenon ’attracted crowds of people tp the bridges and the river banks and the braver spirits rolled up their trousers and proceeded to collect the fish, which required very little catching. The haul varied from fish up to 41b and 51b. in weight down to midgets of a few ounces. Soon afterwards the stream cleared, and by 3 o’clock everything was hack to normal.

Mr I). Hope ) curator of the North, Canterbury ' Acclimatisation Society made investigations as soon as the matter was reported to him. He proceeded up the river and found that the fish were all right above the Armagh street bridge at the entrance to Hagley Park, but below the stream was depleted. Ho had been amazed to see such a number of dead fish, as lie did not think the river bad contained so many. His own theory was that the Christ College baths had been cleaned out with disinfectant, and that this had had a deleterious effect on the. trout. The river would be restocked straight away, hut it would he two years before it got back to its former position, and was fisbable again The fish from up-stream would .of course, gradually come down. The curator warns people that the fish should not be eaten. Mr A. A. Biclccrton, Government Analyst was supplied with some of the fish and his analysis should solve the problem of what caused their death..

All the fish examined appeared to he healthy, and evidently some poison had got into the stream. Many rumours are afloat as to how the deleterious agent got into the river. Home anglers say the weed-destroyer used liv the Waimairi County Council has been washed into the river by the recent rains. Others hold that lime or earhide has been emptied in, and another theory is that chemicals from the Hospital arc the cause of the disaster, for disaster it is to the Acclimatisation Society.