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Part III. — Thirteenth Annual Report 



of the lobster, procured from the canning factories, were also dealt 

 with, for the most part in floating boxes at various parts of the coast, 

 the number incubated being 574,414,000 and the number hatched 

 463,890,000, or over 80 per cent. The total number of lobster-eggs 

 hatched during the last five years amounts to 2,425,546,000, all of which 

 would have been destroyed in the lobster factories. The report states 

 that ' it is too soon as yet to look for marked results ; but already, from 

 ' many localities, where incubators have been operated from the first, 

 £ accounts have been received of large increase in the number of young 

 * lobsters, which, the fishermen believed, were the product of the incubators.' 

 During the last three years a marked improvement in the lobster fishery 

 has taken place, and the export for 1894 exceeded that of the previous 

 year by 10,374 cases, or 22f per cent.; 310 licences were issued to 

 lobster-packers, as against 284 in 1893, and, according to the returns 

 obtained, these factories made use of 89,133 lobster traps, employed 

 3,382 persons, the catch amounting to 6,231,768 lobsters. Regulations 

 regarding the lobster fishery have been submitted to the Legislature for 

 approval, comprising a close time, a minimum space of If inches between 

 the two undermost laths in lobster traps, and a distance of at least 60 

 fathoms between the traps set by different persons. 



An investigation has been begun respecting the decline of the Great 

 Bank fishery for cod, which, it is said, £ threatens to terminate in its entire 

 'abandonment.' In six years — from 1889 to 1894, both inclusive — the 

 number of vessels engaged in the Bank fishery declined from 330 to 58 ; 

 in 1889, 236,821 quintals of fish were taken, as against 53,824 quintals 

 in 1894. The report also contains much valuable information regarding 

 the herring and other fisheries, the curing of fish, freezing of bait, &c. 



3. NEW ZEALAND. 



Considerable attention has of late been given in the colony to fishery 

 questions, and several inquiries have been begun to ascertain something 

 of the natural history and habits of the more important fishes found in 

 New Zealand waters. The late Mr W. Arthur, president of the Otago 

 Institute, when secretary of the Otago Acclimatisation Society, prepared 

 forms which were supplied to various correspondents in order that they 

 might note down sundry particulars regarding the fish caught, as the 

 condition of the reproductive organs, the contents of the stomach, &c. 

 By co-operation between Mr George M. Thomson and Mr Wilson of the 

 Marine Department, this inquiry has been expanded and extended, and 

 the first results have been published by Mr Thomson in the Transactions 

 of the New Zealand Institute, dealing with about forty species of sea- 

 fishes. 



4. THE UNITED STATES. 



In the Eighteenth Report of the United States Fish Commissioner, 

 for the year 1892,* it is stated that for the current expenses of the 

 work the appropriations made by Congress amounted to 295,000 dollars, 

 of which 205,000 dollars were for the propagation and distribution of 

 the food-fishes, 45,000 dollars for the maintenance of vessels, 20,000 

 dollars for the inquiries respecting the food-fishes, and the same amount 

 for statistics. In connection with inquiries concerning the food-fishes, 



* Report of the United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries for the fiscal 

 year ending June 30, 1892. Washington, 1894. 



