UNDEVELOPED RESOURCES OF MARINE FISHERIES. 23 
A PROPOSED REMEDY. 
As an outline of the plan, I would suggest the following :— 
A salmon river from source to estuary, with all its tributaries, 
should be taken as a complete whole. All the interests should 
be ascertained, including a fixed number of fishermen’s claims in 
the estuary. These interests, or holdings, should be valued, 
and a small tax made on the valuation. The funds thus derived 
could be utilised for the proper farming of the river so as to 
make it produce its utmost. One or more hatcheries could be 
built, and by means of stations erected at suitable points, every 
salmon entering the river could be counted, and a complete 
control over the fish exercised. Every fish past its prime could 
be marketed, and suitable breeders selected for the filling of the 
hatcheries with eggs. The cost of working the scheme when 
ascertained could be raised by making a charge of so much per 
Ib. weight for every fish caught, and in this way the take of fish 
would reduce or abolish entirely the original tax on the holdings. 
By means of effective co-operation, the welfare of the river as a 
whole would be the desire of each one holding an interest. Asa 
rough outline of what I am convinced is a thoroughly practical 
idea, this may serve for the foundation of a scheme to be per- 
fected by an abler head than mine. If there are difficulties to be 
overcome, as indeed there are sure to be, at least tackling them 
will not be so hopeless a matter as the present state of affairs. 
In connection with the above, the following paragraph, which I 
came across in a recent publication, may be of interest :—“ Some 
years ago 5000 young salmon were released from the Clackamas 
Hatchery, Oregon, after having been carefully marked by the 
removal of part of the dorsal fin with a razor. No fewer than 
450 of these fish were secured in the second, third, and fourth 
years following their release, which means that for every thousand 
young salmon released two thousand pounds of adult fish were 
caught for market a few years later. The cost of producing and 
turning out the young salmon worked out at about four shillings: 
a thousand.’’ In concluding this subject, I may say that it is 
my opinion that the only way to get a salmon river to yield its: 
utmost is by co-operation and scientific farming of the water. 
OYSTERS. 
Passing now to a very different creature, and one which is: 
