TRANSMISSION OF SALMON EGGS TO AUSTRALIA, ETC. 843 



accordingly one of their first acts was to forward to the United States 

 Fish Commission an order for 200,00Q ova, 50,000 of which were after- 

 wards reserved for the Canterbury Society. Subsequently Sir Samuel 

 Wilson, of Melbourne, asked that 50,000 should be obtained for Vic- 

 toria; and the order was consequently increased by that number. A 

 most courteous reply was received from Professor Baird, promising that 

 the ova should be forwarded, if the usual appropriations were made by 

 Congress ; but in the mean time the IsTew Zealand Government deter- 

 mined to introduce a consignment of 500,000 to be divided among the 

 various acclimatization societies in the colony. The result was that 

 the Fish Commission forwarded the government order, together with 

 the 50,000 for Victoria, the share of the Auckland Society of the half- 

 million ova being fixed at 100,000. As in previous years, the consign- 

 ment was supplied by the McCloud Eiver establishment. Excellently 

 packed there, it was conveyed to San Francisco, and shipj)ed by the 

 Pacific Mail Company's steamer City of Sydney, arriving in Auckland 

 in the best possible condition. 



In anticipation of the arrival of the ova, the government had made 

 arrangements with the president — Mr. J. C. Firth — to superintend the 

 transshipment of the i)ortions intended for the Southern Provinces. 

 Under his instructions, double boxes, with the interspaces fiUed with 

 sawdust, and furnished with ice-racks at the top, were prepared ; and 

 on arrival of the City of Sydney, the ova boxes were rapidly transferred 

 from the steamer's ice-house to these cases, and then shipped south by 

 the steamers Eotorua and Wanaka — arriving at their final destination 

 in superb order. 



The disposition of the 100,000 ova retained in Auckland was as fol- 

 lows : 10,000 were placed in the hatching-boxes in the Domain ; 40,000 

 were then taken by Mr. Firth to the Puniu Eiver, at the special invita- 

 tion of the ISTgatimaniapoto chieftain Eewi, and safely deposited there. 

 Eeturning from thence, Mr. Fu-th then conveyed the balance (50,000) to 

 the Mangakahia Eiver, the chief affluent of the i^orthern Wairoa. In 

 this stream the ova were also very successfully placed. In all the local- 

 ities the hatching was very satisfactory. In the Domain 9,000 fish 

 were hatched out of the 10,000 ova deposited ; and although it was im- 

 possible to ascertain the exact proportion of fish produced at the 

 Puniu and Mangakahia, the result was evidently not far different. In 

 every respect the consignment must be considered as being most suc- 

 cessful. 



The council have now to tender the warmest thanks of the society — 

 or, to speak more correctly, of the whole community — to the United 

 States Fish Commission for their liberality in presenting the ova. Dur- 

 ing this season and the two preceding ones, nearly a million of salmon 

 eggs have been forwarded to ISTew Zealand, for no portion of which has 

 any charge been made, save the actual expenses of packing and transit 

 to San Francisco, &c. This alone would be a gift of no inconsiderable 



