WHITEBAIT.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 26, 6 January 1916, Page 4

WHITEBAIT.

Mr J. M. Drummond, F.L.S.. F.Z.S., in his very interesting Nature Notes in the Lyttelton Times, states that the theory that whitebait are the young of different kinds of larger fish (a theory which Sir James Hector elaborated after many experiments) .is not accepted by some observers, who believe that whitebait simply are whitebait and nothing else. In support of this contention," Mr H. W. Purdie, of Frankton Junction, Waikato states that many years ago he took charge of a small aquarium belonging to the late Mr J. M. Heywood, of Christchurch, while Mr Heywood visited England. Amongst the fish in the aquarium were two whitebait. They were a good many years old; how old Mr Purdie now hardly can say, but sufficiently old to satisfy him that the theory that whitebait is a fry! of larger species cannot be accepted. He thinks, also, that the presence of these fish shows that whitebait are not short-lived. On Mr Heywood's return to Christchurch, the aquarium was given back to him, and the fate of the fish it contained, is not known. Other correspondents write in defence of the theory that whitebait are the young of larger species, but there is some confusion as to the identity of these species. Mr T. E. Green, a very old resident of Kaiapoi, and a very experienced and observant man, states that whitebait are the young of the inanga—"inaka' J in the South Island Maori dialect. He describes this as "a small fresh-water fish whose maximum length is about six inches"; it is found in neatly every stream, lake and lagoon throughout New Zealand, he- adds. Writing, presumably of the Waimakariri, which flows through Kaiapoi, Mr Green states that at spring tides, beginning about the latter part of December, and in each following month until about April these fish make their way down 'the river towards the sea. The descent seldom occupies more than two days. They pass through Kaiapoi at high tide, very early in the morning,.when the water is black wit it them. It was a't these times that Maoris caught them in large quantities and dried them for food. Mr Green* also states that the ova is deposited in, the sea near the mouths of rivers, and that the young ascend the rivers in the spring. They then are called whitebait, or mata.