TELEOSTEI 205 



The small stream flowing into the Upokororo River was selected as 

 the best place in which to liberate the young fry. At the end of 1908 

 Mr L. F. Ayson, Chief Inspector of Fisheries, was sent to England 

 for more ova, and shipped 500,000 by the 'Turakina.' Of these about 

 400,000 came from the Tay, and the rest from Irish rivers. This lot 

 arrived early in 1909, and was at once despatched to Te Anau, where 

 447,000 fry hatched out, which were placed in the Upokororo River. 

 Mr Ayson followed in the 'Rakaia' with another 500,000, made up 

 of 55,000 from the River Test in Hampshire, 120,000 from the Dee 

 in Wales, and about 340,000 from the Rhine, near Trier. The last 

 lot were rather too far advanced when shipped. Seven cases of ova 

 (approximately 350,000 eggs) were taken to Lake Te Anau, and the 

 fry liberated in the Upokororo, and three cases (150,000 eggs) to 

 Hakataramea. From this last lot, 103,440 Rhine salmon and 6900 

 English salmon fry were Uberated into the Hakataramea River. 



In 1910-11 another shipment of ova came out in the 'Ruahine' 

 in charge of Mr C. L. Ayson, 400,000 eggs being obtained from the 

 River Wye, and 600,000 from the Rhine. These were all taken up to 

 Lake Te Anau, where over 930,000 good eggs were unpacked, the 

 Rhine ova again showing much the heavier loss. As the young fry 

 hatched out, they were liberated in ^e lake. During this year also 

 10,274 one-and-a-half-y ear-old fish were liberated in the Hakataramea. 

 In 1911-12, only 181 three-year-old Rhine salmon, and 49 three-year- 

 old Atlantic (English ?) salmon were Uberated in the same river. 



Pond-bred Saltnon. Various attempts have been made to retain 

 salmon in the ponds and to rear fry from them, in the hope that even 

 if the fry from imported ova would not return in due time to the 

 rivers into which they were originally turned, those from locally 

 reared fish would do so. This expectation has not, however, been 

 realised in a single instance. I have collected a good deal of the avail- 

 able information on the subject. In 1887 Mr A. J. Rutherford stated 

 that from each shipment received by the Wellington Society, a few 

 young salmon had been retained in the ponds, so as to test the 

 possibility of rearing in our waters a land-locked variety. Unfortunately 

 the Society does not seem to have kept a separate record of the fish 

 in the ponds, the number of ova taken, or of fry reared from them. 

 In 1888 the Canterbury Society obtained 5240 eggs from some of the 

 fish imported by Mr Farr in 1885, and from these 5000 fry were 

 hatched out. It was claimed for them that they were the first ova 

 taken from imported salmon in the Southern Hemisphere. Unfor- 

 tunately the whole lot were subsequently lost by disease or accident. 

 Ab0ut the same time the Otago Society commenced to rear fry from 

 pond-bred salmon, and continued the experiment for some years. In 



