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Atlantic Salmon. The hatchery operations at Te Anau were not so productive this year as usual. For the capture of ripe fish for stripping a pound net was set up on the Upokororo River in the usual place, and was completed on the 13th April. The first salmon was taken on the 13th April, after which the net was washed out by a flood. All catches were made under similar conditions—at the beginning of a sudden spate in the river. The best day's catch (of sixty-eight fish) was taken on the 4th July, all the fish entering the net within two hours as the river rose after a night of heavy rain. The total number of salmon taken for stripping was 211, of which 75 were males and 136 females. The number of eggs collected was 396,000. 367,000 eggs were sent to Kakahi for stocking the Wanganui River. 26,000 ova and 3,000 fry were handed over to the Southland Acclimatization Society for liberation in the Waiau tributaries. The poor total catch of ripe fish is ascribed to the difficulties arising from weather conditions, which produced very sudden spates, making it impossible to maintain the net in fishing order when the fish were running best. It has also been pointed out that the considerable catches of fish made by fishermen off the moutli of the Upokororo towards the end of the fishing season accounted for many salmon which would otherwise have found their way into the trap. Trolling off the mouth of the Upokororo was carried on as a regular practice for the first time in the 1927-28 season. It has now been restricted by a regulation gazetted on the 15th January, 1929, by which fishing in this part of Te Anau is prohibited after the Ist April. From local reports it would appear that the catch of Atlantic salmon made during the 1928-29 fishing season has exceeded the total for any previous season, but we have no data from which the total number of fish taken can be estimated. From the opening of the season (Ist October) up to the middle of November over two hundred fish had been caught, and it is probable that the total catch for the season exceeded one thousand. The Wanganui River still shows no apparent sign of results from the stocking with the fry of Atlantic salmon, which has been carried out yearly since 1923. Since that date the fry from approximately 2,927,000 ova have been liberated from the Kakahi hatchery in its upper waters, but no salmon run has eventuated, and it now seems probable that the attempt to make the Wanganui a salmon river, which was entered upon with optimistic hopes, may prove to be fruitless. On the assumption that some salmon would reach maturity at three years old, and the majority at four years (which is the case in Britain, although apparently the Waiau salmon mature at an earlier age), by this time four generations of adult salmon should have been produced; but no authentic record of a single fish of this species having been caught or seen has come to hand. The Wanganui River system is indeed of vast extent, and much of it is somewhat inaccessible, so it is possible that fish may be in existence without the fact being recognized. It seems to me, however, to be more probable that the fact of the Wanganui flowing into a sea which is outside the influence of Antarctic water, and is, so to speak, quite foreign to this species, is the decisive factor, and that the explanation of the Wanganui failure is analagous to the failure of the Hokitika in respect to quinnat. acclimatization, which I have already discussed in the paragraph dealing with that species. Whitebait. It is difficult to get anything like complete information about the widespread fisheries for this species. It is certain that the runs of whitebait are subject to considerable variation from year to year, and it is also recognized that weather conditions, in their effect upon the height and turbidity of the water in the rivers, have a great deal to do with the success of the fishing. It follows that abundance of catches in any year is not necessarily commensurate with the abundance of the runs of the juvenile inanga. The 1928 season for whitebait was poor on both east and west coasts of the South Island, and catches were markedly below those of the previous season. The Waikato fishing was poor at the beginning of the season, but in the early part of October heavy catches were made which, in the absence of a demand for canning (one of the two Waikato canneries being closed down), caused a glut on the local markets. The non-operation of this cannery was apparently due to a decline in the export trade. The following returns of the season's total catches have been received ; the figures in brackets show the previous season's totals for comparison : Hokitika and neighbourhood, 463 (925) cwt. ; Westport and neighbourhood, 600 (538) cwt. ; Greymouth and neighbourhood, 100 (160) cwt. ; Kaiapoi and neighbourhood, 85 (361) cwt. A very brief acquaintance with the present-day conditions and with the past history of the fisheries is sufficient to convince one of the difficulties which lie in the way of the administration of the whitebait fisheries. The species, being indigenous to New Zealand, has not received the attention which has been given by the various fishery authorities to the acclimatized fresh-water fishes. Its great abundance—at any rate, in the past —has also tended to the neglect of conservational measures. There is, moreover, considerable variation in the local conditions under which whitebait fisheries are conducted in different parts of the Dominion. The regulations made in the past have been mainly for the purpose of adjusting matters between competing fishermen rather than from the point of view of conservation of the stock. Of recent years, however, in various parts of the Dominion the opinion has been expressed by people who are in a position to judge conditions without bias that the natural abundance of this species is becoming seriously diminished, and that steps should be taken to limit the quantities caught by commercial methods of fishing. This, together with the difficulties which have been experienced in the administration and enforcing of existing regulations, has led to the conclusion that a thoroughgoing revision of the regulations is desirable.