Artuur.—On Fish Culture in New Zealand, 181 
that of England, the respective Governments of the above-named nations 
have assisted actively by money votes, and otherwise, in this most useful 
work. Breeding establishments—or fish hatcheries, as the Americans call 
them—have been set agoing in Scotland, England, Ireland, France, 
Germany, Canada, and the United States—and in every case the results 
have been surprising. By means of ova and young fish distributed from _ 
these hatcheries, and with the assistance of wise fishery laws, duly and 
strictly enforced, streams and rivers where previously the yield of salmon 
had been steadily decreasing yearly, or had ceased altogether, have been 
replenished and stocked again in a surprisingly short space of time. Mr. 
Ashworth, in the west of Ireland, among other achievements, has actually 
stocked a river and lake with salmon, where no such fish ever had been or 
could have got before,—the principal means used being the construction of 
# salmon ladder to let the fish get up past an impracticable waterfall. In 
the United States, also, Professor Baird has reported that Canadian salmon 
in 1878 (the produce of fry liberated there in 1874) were seen running up 
the Connecticut river in hundreds, and some which were caught were as 
heavy as 19 lbs. in weight. He adds, that these are the first salmon seen 
in that river for three-quarters of a century! What then, I ask, may we 
hot accomplish in New Zealand—but particularly in the South Island— 
where we have lakes, rivers, and burns of the finest water, cool, clear, and 
Perennial? Virgin waters where no ruthless pike—the scourge of trout— 
lurks amid reeds and rushes—waters which even now, with our fish culture 
in its infaney, have yielded a return ofa hundredfold. Our inland fisheries 
= yet destined to become a source of valuable fish supplies to our popula- 
tion, and our legislators therefore have a grave responsibility on their 
shoulders, because of their past neglect in the matter of the conservation of 
our rivers with their water rights ; and because of the seanty and doubtful 
assistance given hitherto to those societies which have been struggling to 
People our tenantless waters with valuable food fishes. 
In laying before you a record of pisciculture in New Zealand, I propose 
to give an epitome of the work in other countries for easy reference—next, 
- shortly as possible, the work done by the various Acclimatization Societies 
in New Zealand, in geographical order from Auckland to Southland; and 
lastly, I shall endeavour to describe our actual operations in fish hatching, 
48 carried on at our breeding ponds on the Opoho Creek, immediately to the 
north of Dunedin ; illustrated by a few drawings; as such a description 
may be useful, not only here but for comparison with the process and results 
n old countries. In addition to this arrangement, I shall attach an 
_§PPendix giving results, so far as practicable, in a tabulated form, with dates 
When obtainable. 
