ALMOST COMPLETED.

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20253, 23 July 1937, Page 8

ALMOST COMPLETED.

PUKETURUA FISH HATCHERY. IN (OPERATION SHORTLY. Reconstruction and extension work on the Auckland Acclimatisation Society’s fish hatchery at Puketurua is practically completed and the hatching boxes will be ready to receive the first_consignment of ova in a few days’ time. The new holding ponds and the boxes will provide accommodation for about half a million fish and half a million eggs respectively, and It is hoped to handle about a million fingerlings annually. A visit of inspection was paid to the hatchery site to-day by Messrs D. D. Wilson and W. E. Nicholson, Hamilton representatives on the Acclimatisation Society Council, who looked over the work in company with Mr H. Clinton Savage, also a member of the Auckland Society Council, who has been responsible for the designing of tlie hatchery and ponds. The boxes in the hatching shed, which will accommodate the ova until hatching lakes place, number over a score and are fitted with movable gauze compartments for the better handling and inspection of the ova. Fifteen concrete ponds have been constructed to hold the flngerling trout, these ponds measuring each 25ft. in length by 4ft. in breadth and 3ft. 9in. in depth—appreciably larger than those previously in use. Water for the hatching boxes and ponds is drawn direct from a large spring which pours out of the ground directly behind Hie hatching shed. A small storage dam has been erected here, but I lie water for the hatchery is drawn straight from the source of the spring by means of a large-bore pipe laid along Hie bottom of the pond. Clear and clean water is thus obtained without filtration. The spring is steady flowing, producing about 2£ million gallons daily, and ensures an adequate and uninterrupted supply. The pipes feeding the individual ponds are large enough to produce a fair current of water in the ponds, the object being to ensure the production of strong young fish, capable of fending for themselves in the heavier waters of large rivers. While the present capacity of’the hatchery will permit about a million young fish lo be handled annually, Mr Savage slated that it was hoped to extend it.