19

H.-15

The following shows the returns of quantities caught at certain centres for the past three seasons. Unfortunately there are at present no means of making these returns more comprehensive.

In last year's report I dealt at some length oil the condition of the whitebait fisheries from the aspect of information obtained from acclimatization societies and from Inspectors of Fisheries and others interested in the subject. On the basis of this information certain modifications of the regulations were tentatively recommended in the direction of keeping the administration in closer touch with the fisheries by setting up a licensing system and by prescribing a close season to ensure more escapement from fishing-operations in order to increase the breeding-stocks. It was pointed out in that report that our knowledge of the practices and the production of these fisheries was not as exact nor as complete as was desirable, and one of the principal objects of the recommended changes in regulations was designed to remedy this deficiency. In the past year the information previously obtained has been added to and extended. In the absence of a scheme for obtaining strictly statistical data our understanding of the industrial aspect of the whitebait fisheries stands very much where it did. The abnormally good whitebait season on the West Coast in 1929 has affected the point of view of most people who are interested in that fishery. It has encouraged a tendency to swing towards optimism and laissez f'aire just as the bad season of the previous year encouraged pessimism and the " something must be done " attitude. This is a natural human reaction, but it is not good from the point of view of administration where our policies must be guided and governed by average conditions and the general trend. Our primary policy is to ascertain what these are, and the aim of the whitebait regulations should be principally directed towards this object. In the past the tendency has been to regulate first under the compulsion of popular clamour and to leave fundamental investigations for another day. Rational fishery regulations must be based upon (1) comprehensive knowledge of the practices and production of the fishing ; and (2) comprehensive knowledge of the life-history of the fish. It should be the primary function of the Fisheries Department to obtain and make use of both these classes of information, and in order to function properly it should be staffed and equipped for these purposes. Though very little advance has been made towards this ideal up to the present, progressive work is being done to perfect our knowledge of the fundamentals referred to above. In connection with the natural history of the whitebait a very definite advance has been made by means of the excellent work carried out by Captain Hayes with regard to the spawning of the whitebait in the Manawatu River, which has thrown a new and important light on the subject. A general account of this work is given under the head of "Scientific Investigations." (See p. 20.) Pollution. There is in the Fisheries Act of 1908 a section which was designed to prevent the pollution of rivers and streams into which trout or salmon had been introduced. Allowing sawdust to get into such waters, which is definitely known to be deleterious to fish-life and to the life of organisms on which fish feed, was expressly mentioned in the Act under prohibited forms of pollution, and this same prohibition is repeated in most, if not all, of the regulations in force under the authority of various acclimatization societies. Cases have too frequently come to my notice where this law is ignored in a way which in some cases amounts to deliberate defiance. Individual sawmillers apparently take the view that in the face of such feeble enforcement as the Department and certain acclimatization societies have been able to effect, it is cheaper to risk an occasional small fine than to make provision, which the majority of sawmillers do make, for the disposal of their sawdust otherwise than by pouring it into a stream. I wish to state most emphatically that this sort of thing should not be tolerated. Not only is it on the one hand defiance of statutory authority, and on the other a lame or half-hearted carrying-out of duties statutorily delegated ; it is making distinction between one party and another to the benefit of the non-law-abiding, and it is piling up trouble for the future. The Department should be in a position to take, and should take, more initiative in these cases, and should not leave enforcement to local authorities at all. Though at the present day there remain very few waters which have not been stocked with trout or salmon, there appears to be no rational cause why the protection of streams from pollution should be limited to such waters. The native species are equally in need of protection : the whitebait fishery, for instance, is of considerable economic importance. The pollution law might very well be revised, but meanwhile there is real need for its enforcement as it stands. WHALING. At the Whangamumu base one steamer, working with two tenders, was engaged in whaling. Eleven men were employed at sea and fourteen ashore. In the course of the season fifty-three humpbacks were taken, which yielded 241 tons of oil, valued at £3,856, and 40 tons of bone-meal, &c., valued at £245.

1927. 1928. 1929. Cwt. Cwt. Cwt. Hokitika and neighbourhood .. .. 925 463 1,319 Greymouth and neighbourhood . . .. 160 100 252 Westport and neighbourhood .. .. 538 600 No return obtained. Kaiapoi and neighbourhood .. . . 361 85 188