EDinLE EISHES. 10.3 



" 1 had some little experience with the Ilapuku. Fin- the tirst two 

 years and a half after I came to the country I was lying idle, sojourning 

 at Wangarei Heads, waiting to get land for niyself and passengers, and 

 oi)ening the way for others to follow • and duriiag those two years and a 

 half I made nineteen voyages, in a small boat I had brought with me from 

 Nova Scotia, to the Hen and Chickens, fishing Hapuku for family use, 

 as well as to kill time, or for pleasure if you like, and seldom, unless 

 interrupted by storms, missed making fine hauls of that superior fish ; 

 on one trip particiilaily I took fifty-two Hapukus home, and caught 

 one with my own hands that weighed 90Ihs., and I met with jtei-sons 

 who had seen larger still. If a person like myself, going out when 

 fancy led me, without any experience of the tides, appetite or habits of 

 the fish, could catch such large lots in so short a time, what would 

 an experienced fisherman catch, who would be for months stationed at 

 the place. 



" I made these tiips in all seasons of the year, and had ample 

 chance of observation ; and I can say that, notwithstanding my long 

 connection with fisheries in Nova Scotia for a series of years, I never 

 saw in that country the sea more alive with fish than I have seen 

 around the Hen and Chickens, where in fine weather were constant 

 shoals offish, stretching as far off as the eye could see in every dii-ection, 

 and on a calm day myriads of various sorts could be observed passing 

 and I'epassing under my boat, I often said then, that I did not know 

 of a better project in New Zealand than a fishing station, if judiciously 

 managed ; and, were it not for my time of life, and the interest I had 

 in the people who came with me to the country, seeing them, with 

 myself, adi'ift and astray in. a new and distracted colony, without land 

 to settle on—old as I was, in all probability I would have set a fishery 

 a-going. For I do not only believe, but I know, that there is an inex- 

 haustible source of national wealth, swarming unmolested round these 

 islands, and on sunken rocks not yet discovered, that will yet be a 

 profitable resource to the laborious fisherman, and contribute lax-gely to 

 the aggregate prosperity of the country. In my own humble view, 

 our present mineral wealth is notliing now to what it will be in the time 

 to come, yet I believe that the fisheries of this country will surpass it in 

 wealth, j^ermanency, and stability."* 



The examination of a fine specimen of this fish since the fii-st ])art of 



* Meuioranclum on Coast Fislieries to the Joint Committee ou Colonial Indus- 

 tries, 187 1, by John Munro, Es<i., M.H.K. 



