H.—7

visions of " The Salmon and Trout Act, 1867," the use, for a time, of nets or engines of any kind to capture fish in the waters, salt or fresh, of any rivers in which salmon have been planted. And, finally, the Trustees earnestly urge that an Act of Parliament should be passed to prohibit all fixed nets or engines for the capture of fish in New Zealand waters. April, 1876. Postscript. —In the end of 1875, the Provincial Government of Otago, in concert with the General Government, ordered a shipment of salmon ova to be sent by steamer to Melbourne, and accordingly they were packed in the steamer " Durham." She sailed from England on 22nd January, 1876. The ova coming to New Zealand (90,000) were at Melbourne transhipped to the intercolonial steamer coming to the Bluff; landed there (with the exception of a few boxes sent to Canterbury), and placed on the Southland hatching-boxes on Ist April; thus these ova, brought all the way from Britain by steamers, were placed in the hatching-boxes sixty-nine days after sailing, and, as near as can now be ascertained, eighty-seven days after having been taken from the parent fish. It was observed that in most —in nearly all of the boxes —the moss was fresh and green, rather close-packed and compressed in those placed near the floor of the ice-house. All the moss tasted of turpentine more or less strongly. Of the ova that came to Southland, from 25,000 to 30,000 were apparently healthy, and of those it appeared that about two-thirds were not fecundated. The hatching is now in progress, and for the present the Curator is unwilling to say anything more definite than an expression of his confident anticipation that this will prove a more successful shipment than even that by the " Lincolnshire." The Trustees believe that the mode adopted in this instance, of bringing the eggs from Britain by steamers, is that which is most likely to effect the naturalization of salmon in New Zealand—an object which would probably be secured by one other successful shipment; and they trust that arrangements will be made for another shipment in December. J. A. E. Menzies, 2nd May, 1876. Chairman of Trustees.

DISTRIBUTION of FRY from Southland Ponds.

By Authority : G-eobge Didsbttby, Government Printer, Wellington.—lB76. Price 3d.]

A

1. Salmon Fry, 1874. —To Aparima Pond, 96 fish carried into Aparima "River, June 1575. 2. Sea Trout.—Yry bred in 1870. They spawned in 1875: in 1876, fry placed in Oreti, 850; in Wyndham, 250. Ten large fish retained in breeding-pond. 2a. Half-bred Sea Trout. —Fry reared 1874, placed in Oreti in 1875, 500; in Makarewa, 187G, 40. 8. Brown Trout :—

1869. 1870. 1871. 1872. 1873. 1874. 1875. 1876. Upper "Waiau "Wakatipu (lost in transit) ... Otamita... "Waiau (Stewart's) Waihopai Centre Creek To Queenstown (Corporation) Wyndham (lost in transit)... Makarewa (large fish in 1876) "Waikiwi Omut (Eiverton)... To Dunedin Society Puni Creek "Winton Creek Upper Mataura (Howell's) Benmore Waimatuku Oraura ... Morley ... Oreti (at Lowther) Wyndham Mimiau ... Waikaka Titiroa ... 100 50 47 100 50 100 350 117 100 "82 "co 100 100 50 210 100 220 500 500 40 205 160 310 147 500 500 750 750 500 350 250