5

H.—7

No. 6. The Hon. the Commissioner of Trade and Customs to Acclimatization Societies. Sir, — Government Buildings, Wellington, 18th January, 1886. I have the honour to forward to you copy of correspondence with the Agent-General on the subject of the introduction of fish ova. I shall be glad to receive any suggestions or comments upon it with which you may favour me, and also to learn if your society is prepared to take charge of any part of the ova, some of which is shortly expected to arrive, a telegram having been received from the Agent-General stating that a considerable shipment of salmon ova will be made to Auckland in a fortnight. I append a list of the acclimatization societies to which similar letters to this have been sent. I will be glad, if it be possible, that these societies should act in concert and agree upon united action with regard to treating the ova after their arrival. I have, &c, The Secretary, Acclimatization Society. Julius Vogel.

List of acclimatization societies to which above letter was sent: Auckland, Tauranga, Opotiki Farmer's Club, Poverty Bay, Hawke's Bay, Taranaki, Hawera, Wanganui, Manawatu, Manchester and Kiwitea, Wellington and Wairarapa, Nelson, Marlborough, North Canterbury, Geraldine County, South Canterbury, Greymouth, Waitaki County, Otago, Lake County, Southland.

No. 7. The President and Honoraby Secbetaey, Waitaki County Acclimatization Society, to the Hon. the Commissioner of Teade and Customs, Wellington. Sie, — Oarnaru, 12th February, 1886. The Council of the Waitaki County Acclimatization Society, after carefully considering the correspondence between yourself and the Agent-General, enclosed in a circular letter dated the 18th January, 1886, in which you desire to receive any suggestions or comments that our society may favour you with, beg, firstly, to express their appreciation of the efforts you have taken in the matter of the introduction and acclimatization of fish ova to New Zealand. Secondly, they recognize that the various efforts working for acclimatization are not harmonious, but running in at least four different channels, viz.—(1) Efforts by Government, conjointly with the societies; (2) efforts by the Government independent of the societies; (3) efforts by the societies themselves, conjointly and independently; (4) efforts by the Agent-General independent alike of the societies or the Government. And we consider that it is a matter for very great regret that the Agent-General, while working in this matter for two years —1883 and 1884—kept the Government and the societies in this country in ignorance of his endeavours. It was with a view to getting united action that our society, in a letter dated the Ist September, 1884, suggested to the North Canterbury Society that scheme which Mr. Farr—having knowledge,'skill, experience, and giving incessant minute attention, even at the risk of his life, on board ship, and, above all, " enthusiasm," to quote the Agent-General—so happily and successfully carried out. Had the great pains taken by the Agent-General been known in this country, and his intention to send out a shipment of salmon ova in a " moist-air chamber " in 1884, we feel convinced that the societies would have waited to see the result of that experiment before going to the expense of sending Mr. Farr Home. Indeed, in suggesting this course of action we were guided very much by the result of the shipment of ova (Loch Leven and Burn trout) sent by Sir James Maitland in the " lonic," January, 1884. Our impression is that the success of that shipment was due, not so much to the moist-air chamber, as to the incessant care and minute attention paid to them by Mr. Pringle Stoddart, who happened to be a passenger on that vessel, and was a member of the Otago Acclimatization Society, and possessed of skill and experience in dealing with trout ova, and who had to go to considerable personal expense in getting ice and other necessaries for ova while in transit. We quite agree that the great difficulty lies in getting ova at the right moment; but we submit that that right moment is not early autumn-time at Home, for ova procured in October would be hatching out in from one hundred to one hundred and twenty days—that is, in January and February, two of our hottest months; and we fear that the heat would cause many of the ova to abort or hatchout prematurely, giving a large percentage of weakly fish and cripples. Therefore we urge that Mr. Farr was in plenty of time, arriving Home in early December: and, from a perusal of Mr. Farr's reports, and hearing his statements, we think the Agent-General is hardly generous in attributing undue delay to Mr. Farr; for the latter states (Canterbury Times, 9th May, 1885), the AgentGeneral, " though courteous and willing to assist, pointed out that nothing could be done until after the holidays;" and, further, we feel that he did not get that assistance from the Scottish Fisheries Board that he, as our New Zealand representative, was entitled to : and we do not consider that his success, in the face of all his difficulties, should be attributed to a lucky accident. On reference to previous shipments of salmon ova to New Zealand we find that, from 1868 to 1878, out of 824,000 ova, only 3,996 survived to be turned out, and they have not been seen since. Whereas in Mr. Farr's shipment of 120,000* nearly the whole arrived safely, and considerably more than half are either distributed or ready for distribution. The Agent-General states, " there is no need to send any one Home, especially to do what is done every day at fishery establishments possessing the most perfect appliances in the world ; " and yet, a little further, "I believe the most constant source of failures has been that ova were sent out which had never been impregnated at all; " and, quoting Mr. Fair, he says, " not 10 per cent, of the ova allotted to the Canterbury Society had ever been fertilized." If this be the case with ova, supplied by fishery establishments having such perfect appliances, and charging on an average. £1

* Note.—There is apparently some mistake hero, Mr. Parr's report of tho 12th Juno, 1885 (Parliamentary papers. H.-17, of 1885), shows that ho left England with some 198,000 ova.

2—H. 7.