Aethue.' — On Fish Culture in Neiv 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 

 a 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 

 not 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 infancy, have yielded a return of a hundredfold. Our inland fisheries 

 are 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 scanty 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, 

 as 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, 

 as 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 

 in old countries. In addition to this arrangement, I shall attach an 

 appendix giving results, so far as practicable, in a tabulated form, with dates 

 when obtainable. 



