ANOTHER SALMON SHIPMENT.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 270, 3 April 1873, Page 5

ANOTHER SALMON SHIPMENT.

The Oberon, which sailed from London for Otago in January last, has on board 150,000 salmon ova, 50,000 of which were procured from the Tay. The shipment was to have been made by the Lubterworth, which sailed on December 20, but owing, in the first place, to the delay in getting the vessel into the dry dock, and, in the next place, to his not having received any positive answer from the Severn Fishery Board. Mr Youl, under whose superintendence the packing operations have been made, was unable to take advantage of that vessel's sailing. In November, Dr Feafcherston applied to Dr Lindsay, of Perth, for assistance in this further attempt to introduce salmon into the Colony, and in intimating the pleasure it gave him to comply with the request the Doctor wrote : — Five years ago I was consul tod by the Government of Otago on the whole subject of transportation of salmon ova frem Scotland to New Zealand ; at that time I had occasion to discuss the matter with all our local authorities connected with the Stormontfield Breeding Ponds, and the Tay Salmon Fisheries, and in consequence of the strong representations made to me that all applications for ova from the Tay had been refused, and were likely to be refused, by the Tay Salmon Fishery Board, I advised the Home Agent of the Otago Government and Mr Youl, who was, at my suggestion, entrusted with the practical part of the Otago experiment of 1867, not; to apply to the Tay Board for ova, which were accordingly taken from the Tweed, or other rivers in Scotland and England. The result of the enquiry made in connection with, and in consequence of your letter to me of 22nd instant, is the discovery, that up to the present date, notwithstanding the many applications that have been made to the Tay Board for Tay ova to stock similar experimental ponds elsewhere, not one of these requests has been complied with ; all have been refused, and those authorities here who have the most intimate knowledge of the transactions of the said Board since the Stormontfield ponds were established in 1853, give me scarcely any hope that an application from the New Zealand Government will prove more successful than its predecessors. Nevertheless, I have intimated to the clerks j of the Tay Board (both of whom are personal friends) that I will avail myself of the special meeting of 6th proximo, to present an application on behaltof the New Zealand Government, and meanwhile I have put myself in communication with — 1. Friends here who may be both able and willing to influence the individual members of the Board in our favor prior to the date of meeting. 2. Those authorities on the general subject of salmon ova transportation experiments, who can supply me with the most recent and useful facts or arguments calculated to fortify or support our application. I will do all I can in the interval to secure for our application the most favourable consideration of the Tay Board. Meanwhile it is proper (I think) that I should explain my non-approval of some of the arrangements connected with the transport of the ova when obtained. "When I learned what bad been the arrangements for the Otago experiment of 1867, I ventured to predict its ultimate failure, and a similar impression was produced by a perusal of the Otago newspapers of May, 1868, announcing its first apparent succeess, on the late Mr Robert Buist, the well • known " Peter-in-the-Pools-of-the-Field," the superintendent of all the Stormontfield experiments, and the author of the fullest and best account thereof. The points on which I differ (apparently) from the authorities who conducted the Otago experiment of 1867, and who are charged with the man-

agemenc of that now in progress, may be shortly summed up as follows :—: — (1.) As regards the introduction of ova from Scotland, I hold that :- (a) The transfer from the Scotch river to the New Zealand breeding pond should be as direct and speedy as possible, (b.) The most direct and speefly line of transit is between the Clyde and Invercargill or Dunedin, according to the position of the ponds m Southland or Otago. (c.) Steam transit is to be preferred to sailing ships, for its greater speed, (d.) Ice-houses or ice-boxes should be swung, on the principle of the "Bessemer" saloon in the proposed Channel steamers, or on that of the suspension of compass lamps or glass trays, in all ships, steam, or other, (c.) Proper arrangements should be used for the collection and packing of ova ; the care of the ova during the voyage out; the unpacking on arrival, and their subsequent culture, including the construction of suitable breeding ponds. It was doubtless from failure in attending to some of these requisites of success, that the Otago experiment of 1867 did not realise the hopes that were at one time entertained regarding it. As regards the introduction of ova from ether countries, I am of opinionthat a much nearer source of ova for stocking the New Zealand rivers is the seaboard of Western North America, viz., British Columbia, Oregon, or California. The ova might be collected as near as possible to San Francisco, and shipped by the mail steamers direct to New Zealand. On this subject I recently submitted my views to Dr Robert Brown, who spent some years as a naturalist explorer in Vancouver's Island, British Columbia, Oregon, and California, and who has published a number of papers on the natural history of the Western American seaboard. He has favored me with a long communication in reply, fully approving of my views, and giving much information regrading the species of salmon there to be met with, and their value as food. I have only to add that our resident authority here, Mr Wm. Brown, the author of a work well known in Scotland on "The Natural History of the Salmon," who has been associated with the late Mr Buist, in all the Stormontfield experiments, and who has an unrivalled knowledge of the Tay and its feeders as sources of salmon and salmou ova, strongly insists upon the use of artificially fecundated ova for transportation experiments, for reasons which he specified in a letter to myself in September, 1867. If extracts from this letter, or from others in my possession on the subject of salmon acclimatisation, can be of any use to the New Zealand Government in their present experiment, I will be glad to forward them. But I may mention that it is probable I will embody all this correspondence, so far as it relates to " salmon acclimatisation" in New Zealand, in a paper on that subject, to be forwarded (at its request) to the Otago Institute.