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No. 43. The Deputy Minister of Fisheries, Canada, to the Secretary, Marine Department, Wellington. Sic, — Ottawa, 6th November, 1886. I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of 7th ultimo, and to state that this department regrets its inability to give you any information with regard to the possibility of successfully transporting lobster-ova or live lobsters from San Francisco to New Zealand. I have, &c, John Tilton, William Seed, Esq., Wellington, New Zealand. Deputy Minister of Fisheries.

No. 44. The Curator, Southland Acclimatization Society, to the Secretary, Marine Department. Sir,— Invercargill, 14th May, 1887. In accordance with instructions received from the Honorary Secretary of the Southland Acclimatization Society, I beg to submit to you the following statement of the number of young salmon now in the hatching-boxes at the Wallacetown ponds. Permit me first to state that the fish now in the boxes are very strong and healthy, feeding well, and with a very small death-rate. The first lot I laid down —19,777 ex " Kaikoura " —did not commence to hatch for ten days, as I anticipated, but then they came very quickly, and hatched clean out without any tail of bad ova. In fact, hatching commenced on the 13th March, and was finished on the 20th. From them I removed 450 deformed fish. I commenced to feed water-fleas to them on the 19th April, but they did not feed freely till the Ist May. Now they are feeding greedily on both fleas and liver. In the second lot laid down —65,835 ex " Doric " —general hatching commenced on the seventh day, but was very uneven—some boxes being almost finished when others were commencing; and in this lot there was a large tail of ova that would not hatch, and eventually died. I removed the last 3,000 ova and put them by themselves. From them I did not get fifty good fish ; and yet there were fish in all of them, but they seemed unable to burst the shell. They commenced to hatch on the 27th March, and it was the 26th April when I removed the last of the ova. A very great contrast to the first lot; but those that did hatch proved the better fish and with the smallest death-rate. From them I removed 2,500 deformed fish, which is a large percentage. These fish have only been feeding a few days, and are looking as well as I could desire, with a very small death-rate. The deaths among the alevins in both lots have been caused chiefly by dropsy and constitutional weakness. I have, &c, Archibald N. Campbell, Curator, Southland Acclimatization Society. William Seed, Esq., Secretary, Marine Department, Wellington.

Salmon-ova ex " Kaikoura." Ova laid down 3rd and 4th March, 1887 ... ... 19,777 Ova died during hatching ... ... ... 2,527 Alevins died since hatching ... ... ... 2,002 Deformed fish removed ... ... ... ... 450 4,979 Live fish in boxes, 14th May, 1887 ... ... ... 14 -__^i Salmon-ova ex " Doric." Ova laid cTown 19th and 20th March, 1887 ... ... 65,835 Ova died during hatching ... ... ... 9,136 Alevins died since hatching ... ... ... 2,470 Deformed fish removed ... ... ... .. 2,500 14,106 Live fish in boxes, 14th May, 1887 ... ... 51,729 Grand total ... .... ... ... 66,527

No. 45. The Honorary Secretary, Canterbury Acclimatization Society, to Chief Clerk, Marine Department. Sib, Canterbury Acclimatization Society, Christchurch, 20th May, 1887. I am now enabled to report to date the results of the ova ex E.M.S.S. " Tongariro," and allotted to the Canterbury Acclimatization Society, Christchurch. Of the supposed 50,000 Ehinesalmon ova only 3,620 good ones were picked out, from which we have 3,250 alevins. Of the Ehine brook-trout, Alpine char, and Carpione trout, I can only say I believe we have a few of two of them, but, not knowing what they are, we must wait for their development. Loch Leven trout ova, of which there was 17,760 : 13,140 hatched out, many being unimpregnated, and 1,935 of those hatched