TELEOSTEI 237 



streams, such as the Hakataramea and Gray's Hills Creek, to spawn. The 

 number of eggs collected last season was 240,000. These were disposed of as 

 follows: 25,000 were sent to Tasmania, 157,500 to the Hokitika River, 

 3000 salmon fry to the Seaforth-MacKenzie River, and the balance were 

 retained at the Hakataramea Hatchery. This season the Manager reports a 

 good run of salmon spawning in the Tekapo, and the collection of eggs 

 for this season is now proceeded with. During the year there were liberated 

 from the Hakataramea ponds: 137 three-years old, loii two-years old, 

 8317 one-year old, and 12,426 four-months old fish. 



Mr Ayson's report for 1912 says: 



In point of numbers the run of salmon which spawned in the Waitaki 

 River and its tributaries last season was quite equal to any of the previous 

 years. The average size of the fish was, however, larger, and a peculiarity of 

 the run was the very large percentage of male salmon which were captured. 

 In other seasons the fish taken were about equal sexes, but last season 

 nearly twice as many male fish were taken as females. Had the percentage 

 of females been equal to other seasons nearly double the quantity of eggs 

 would have been collected. The total quantity of eggs taken was 237,000, 

 and these were disposed of as follows : 27,500 were supplied to the Tas- 

 manian Government; 190,000 sent to the West Coast; 7500 retained at the 

 Hakataramea Hatchery: 12,000, the loss during incubation. The salmon- 

 eggs sent to the West Coast hatched out very well, and the young fish were 

 planted in tributaries of the Hokitika River. It is interesting to note that 

 a number of the young fish were taken in whitebait-nets in the tideway 

 of the river during the early summer, showing that they maintain in this 

 country the same characteristics of going to sea at an early stage of their 

 existence as they do in their native country. 



The following fish were liberated from the station in October, 

 1912, 503 three-years-old, and 567 two-years-old. 



In 1913 251,000 ova were collected in the tributaries of the 

 Waitaki River, of which 150,000 were hatched at the Department's 

 hatchery at Kokatahi and liberated in the tributaries of the Hokitika 

 River, 25,000 were sent to Tasmania, 45,000 were Uberated at Haka- 

 taramea, and the fry of 20,000 were kept in the ponds at Hakataramea. 

 Several thousand were hatched at Taupapa for the fresh-water 

 aquarium at the Auckland Exhibition. 



The following is from Mr Ayson's report for 19 14-16: 



A succession of floods in the Hakataramea River during the month 

 of May, 1914, interfered seriously with the collection of salmon-eggs. The 

 nets were washed out several times, and most of the salmon escaped up- 

 stream and spawned in reaches of the river in the gorges. The manager 

 at Hakataramea reports a heavier run of fish than the previous season, but 

 owing to the unfavourable river-conditions the number of eggs collected 

 was less. On account of the large number of salmon which escaped up 

 the Hakataramea during the floods, the river was heavily stocked with 

 the salmon-fry hatched from the natural spawning. In the late summer 



