An Angler's Paradise. 7 



Francis, the number being about two thousand seven hundred 

 altogether. As a result of the importation of trout ova into 

 Tasmania and their cultivation there, we find in four years that 

 country sending ova, taken from fish on the natural spawning 

 beds, to New Zealand. We find also that those eggs were success- 

 fully hatched there, and from this small stock a beginning was 

 made, and there seems to be little doubt that from these eggs 

 trout originated in New Zealand. So successful was the work 

 carried on there, that the New Zealand Government very wisely 

 took it in hand, and the result was a considerable importation of 

 ova into the colony, the Solway Fishery having had the honour 

 of furnishing some of these. It is largely owing to the work of 

 the Acclimatization Societies, however, that the fish-cultural work 

 so wisely fostered by the Government has prospered. 



In order to shew the difficulties under which it was carried 

 on in the early days of its history, I quote the following from the 

 Lyttelton Times, N.Z., regarding a consignment of ova received in 

 1873, and shipped by Mr. Frank Buckland : 



" The first of the consignment for Otago proved to be 

 entirely bad when opened, and the second was very little better. 

 But very few fish indeed were hatched out in Otago, and after 

 being liberated in the rivers nothing more was heard of them, 

 whilst Mr. Johnson failed to bring any of the five or six thousand 

 presented to this province to life. The ova on this occasion were 

 obtained to the order of the General Government, from the Stor- 

 montfield hatching establishment on the Tay, Scotland. Having 

 been placed in boxes containing a few hundred each, they were 

 conveyed to London; each parcel was supported the whole 

 distance by hand in order to prevent jar. An icehouse for the 

 reception of the ova had been constructed in the forehold of the 

 vessel, and about twenty tons of ice were used in packing around 

 the boxes. The voyage occupied a hundred days. The curators 

 of the Canterbury and Invercargill Society lost no time in going 

 on board, where they succeeded in making arrangements for 

 getting the ova out on the following day. The Invercargill ova 

 were placed in a large case and covered with ice and straw, whilst 

 cases about four feet by three feet, and three feet deep, had been 

 made for the Canterbury portion of the shipment, each case being 



