The Southland Times. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1872.

Southland Times, Issue 1978, 20 December 1872, Page 2

The Southland Times. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1872.

It is true that nothing really valuable is obtained without labor, and it is also true that much of the labor bestowed in search of the valuable ia disappointed. So certain has mankind become of the connection between the two truths, that failure in the first experiment towards the accomplishment of any important object, is regarded hy all but the excessively sanguine as a matter of course. With some of this latter class, repeated disappointment is accepted as an omen of the brilliancy of the ultimate success. It is well that it should be so, seeing that many ok the results of late yeara, which have exercised the most material influence upon the human family, have been accomplished by the I^p&d*%f3marj~ difficulties of the undertaking, but in the absence of sympathy from without, and under the additional one of being stigmatized as rim^riocrs and visionaries,. The world is undoubtedly more tolerant of a series of failures in the efforts to accomplish those objects in which the benefit of success is tangible and palpable, than of those in which it is either remote or indirect. Efforts to realise a present and material advantage are more fully comprehended than those of which the advantages of success, although possibly of equal magnitude, are less plainly to be seen. This is evident with regard to the efforts which have been made by the various colonial Acclimatisation Societies for the intro duction of fish and various animala from other countries, and especially with regard to the introduction of salmon. The pos sibility of its introduction has been questioned by many, and the utility probably by an equal number. It has been exceedingly difficult to argue the matter with the latter class, because of the absence of any instance of success in which the material advantages in a com mercial point of view of such a success can be pointed at. To the former, no proof can be given, until, in spite of their predictions, and without their aid, the feat has been accomplished. Larsje sums of money have been expended by some of our neighboring colonies, and with us, the effort has been made on a scale of reasonable magnitude ; yet, year after year, the sickness of hope deferred has been the experience of all concerned, with frequent doubts as to the issue, excepting in the case of a few of the sanguine by whom the effort had been projected, and on whom the labor of its execution had chiefly fallen. Yet it requires but little argument to prove that such a success in either of the colonies in which, the attempt has been made would be a material advantage to all ; or to show the folJy of despairingly abandoning the undertaking without reasonably sufficient trial. In the neighboring colony of Tasmania, there now appear indications of success. The Hobart Town Mercury publishes a letter, of date 7th November, which had been addressed to a gentleman in that city who had interested himself greatly in the salmon experiment. Without quoting the letter we remark that it conveys the testimony of a gentleman, " whose word in anything is entitled, to the fullest confidence of his fellowcolonists," to the effect that he had seen certain fish, " about thirty or forty showing their silvery sides and cutting the water like scythes, and then they broke water and leaped at the falls." On the 14th Ifovember some fishermen with a seine net caught in the Derwent " two little fish of a species rare in the river, and which they thought would probably prove the anxiously-looked-for sdlmo salar" Accordingly, these fish were submitted to inspection by Judge FbajtCIS, " -vflloso authority as a. judge in. matters piscatory is generally admitted," and after a careful scrutiny he concluded " the larger fish to be a young salmon," which " cannot have left the fresh water more than two or three weeks." He also asserts that " one thing is now perfectly clear, that migratory salinonidae have bred and are yearly breeding in the Derwent," and as to the large fish referred to as having been seen in the river, he says, " I fully believe them to bave been a school of salmon, the first (probably) of the season, on their way up from the salt water. They were too large fox grilse, and could not have been, over-grown trout, for these never appear in a shoal, but jealously keep their own brats. They were migrating fish, as they were seen travelling upwards far above the utmost limits of the brackish water. In short, they could not conceivably have been any fish but salmon." The Mercury says, " Mr Allpoet brought down from the ponds a salmon trout emolt bred in the fresh water at the ponds. It is a fine specimen of the salmon trout smolt, but differs in appearance and other particulars from the two smolts taken recently — a circumstance tending to confirm the opinion that they are true sahno salar stnolta," Such evidence and testimony as the foregoing is matter of deep interest to all, and is especially gratifying to those to whom the salmon experiment has been confided. The risk of the acclimatisation of the salmon in the southern hemisphere is now in all probability reduced to a minimum ; yet in the interval which must clapse — supposing the success to b« as fully decided as is hoped— before Tasmania can afford to part with much of the salmon ova, it is desirable not to intermit efforts in other directions. The Southland Acclimatisation Society is now making an experiment on a small scale. A Californian agency undertakes to Bupply American salmon ova under such conditions as render the chance of success probable, and failure not a very serious monetary loss. A proposal by the General Govern-

ment to make a further effort under the direction of the Southland Society has ' been responded to here, and having now more than " two strings" to our bow, we may with, reasonable confidence predict j that the acclimatisation of salmo salar. ia the New Zealand waters is a matter which at no very distant date will be accomplished, as by telegram in our issue to-day it will be observed that Dr leatherston ia shipping the aalinon ova-, from Great Britain. '