220 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Aug. 6, 1910. 
Of American fishes the following species have 
been brought into New Zealand: Rainbow trout 
(Sahno irideus), eastern brook trout (Salvelinus 
fontinalis ), whitefish ( Coregonus clupeiformis), 
chinook salmon ( Oncorhynchus tschawytscha), 
sockeye salmon ( O. nerka), landlocked salmon 
(Salmo scbago), Mackinaw trout ( Cristivomer 
namaycush), lake herring ( Argyrusomus artedi ) 
and catfish ( Atnciurus vulgaris .) Of these we 
have successfully acclimatized the rainbow trout, 
brook trout and the catfish, and as the chinook 
and sockeye salmon have now returned from 
the sea to spawn three seasons in succession, I 
think that we can fairly claim that they are 
established as well. 
The following account of the introduction of 
the fishes mentioned above may be of interest: 
Three consignments of rainbow trout eggs 
were obtained from California by the Auckland 
Acclimatization Society in 1883 and 1884. These, 
I believe, were the only rainbow eggs which 
have been brought to this country. A consider¬ 
able percentage were lost on the voyage down, 
but sufficient were saved to provide a stock of 
brood fish for the hatcheries, and a number to 
plant in some of the northern rivers. It took 
some years to work up a stock of spawners at 
the hatcheries, and as the young fish were pro¬ 
duced they were planted in streams all over the 
Auckland Province. It is about fifteen years 
since rainbow trout commenced to be caught by 
anglers, and now they exist in immense num¬ 
bers in almost all the rivers, lakes and streams 
in that part of the country. 
These fish grow to a great size in this country. 
While the most common weight caught by ang¬ 
lers is from two to eight pounds, specimens are 
frequently taken ranging from ten to eighteen 
pounds, and occasionally over twenty pounds. 
On the walls of my office I have six mounted 
specimens taken in the spawning season from a 
stream flowing into Lake Tarawera; the smallest 
of these is twelve pounds and the largest eigh¬ 
teen pounds. Heavier specimens could have been 
procured, but these were chosen on account of 
their elegant shape. They are most plentiful in 
the streams flowing into and in Lakes Rotorua 
and Rotoiti. By angling (and anglers -are re¬ 
stricted to thirty pounds weight a day), over 
twenty tons of trout have been taken out of 
these two small lakes this season. Rainbow 
trout fishing has now become one of the chief 
attractions for tourists to the Rotorua district, 
and the value of this fish to the country, both 
for sport and food, is immense. 
The first eastern brook trout eggs brought to 
this country were imported by a Mr. Johnson, 
of Christchurch, in the South Island, about 1882, 
and from Mr. Johnson's importation various ac¬ 
climatization societies obtained eggs from which 
they subsequently raised stock fish for their 
hatcheries. From these hatcheries large num¬ 
bers of young fish of various sizes have been 
planted in streams both in the north and south. 
They made a good showing in a few streams 
for a time, but since the introduction of the 
rainbow and English brown trout into these 
streams the brook trout in some instances have 
wholly disappeared and in others have been 
greatly reduced in numbers. Our people think 
highly of this beautiful fish and are much dis¬ 
appointed because better success has not attended 
the efforts made to thoroughly establish them in 
our waters. 
The first importation of chinook salmon eggs 
was made in 1S75 and from that date to 1880 
several shipments were made, some by the Gov¬ 
ernment and some by acclimatization societies. 
On arrival the salmon eggs were parceled out to 
different acclimatization societies and the young 
fish when hatched were planted in rivers from 
the north of Auckland to the far south. Through 
want of experience, unsuitable water at the 
hatcheries and planting the young fish in rivers 
when the conditions were entirely unsuitable for 
them, no results were obtained from these ship¬ 
ments. 
In 1900 the Government decided to make a 
vigorous and systematic effort to acclimatize this 
fish. A site for a salmon station was chosen on 
the Hakataramea River, a tributary stream of 
the Waitaki, and the erection of the hatching 
shed was commenced in November of that year. 
The Government decided to confine its efforts 
to one of the rivers considered to be the most 
suitable for these fish, and the Waitaki was 
chosen, as in its general characteristics it bears 
a considerable resemblance to 'the rivers on the 
Pacific coast of America which the chinook sal¬ 
mon frequent in the spawning season. 
In January, 1901, the first shipment of chinook 
eggs for the Government salmon station arrived. 
They were supplied by the United States Bureau 
of Fisheries, from its station at Baird, Califor¬ 
nia, on the McCloud River. The shipment came 
over in charge of G. H. Lambson, superintendent 
of the Baird station, and arrived in excellent 
condition. 
From 1901 to 1907 five importations of eggs 
were made, invariably arriving in splendid con¬ 
dition, the loss in most of the shipments not 
amounting to more than one-half per cent.; i. e., 
99 T/ 2 per cent, of good eggs were unpacked into 
the hatching boxes at Hakataramea. The total 
number of eggs in the five shipments reached 
about 2,000,000, and from these fully 1,700,000 
young fish have been turned out. They were 
planted at various ages from fry to two-year-old 
fish, but about 90 per cent, were planted just 
after the sac was absorbed. 
Now, as regards the definite results obtained 
from the young salmon planted. In 1905 salmon 
were reported as having been caught by anglers 
in the tideway near the mouth of the Waitaki 
River, and a specimen of these fish was identi¬ 
fied by the late Sir James Elector as a male of 
the genus Oncorhynchus. In May and June, 
1906, salmon were found spawning in the Haka¬ 
taramea River, and specimens were identified by 
Sir James Hector and myself as chinook. In 
April and May last year (1907) quite a run of 
salmon came up the Waitaki River and spawned 
in several of its main tributary rivers. In the 
Hakataramea from 300 to 400 salmon spawned 
in the two miles of river before it joins the 
Waitaki, and a number of these fish were caught 
and stripped and about 30,000 eggs put down to 
hatch. The eggs hatched out well, and a num¬ 
ber of the young fish are now being reared at 
the salmon station for experimental purposes. 
This season the run of spawning salmon in the 
Waitaki is similar to last year as to quantity, 
but on an average the fish are considerably 
heavier, and they seem to have run higher up 
the main tributary rivers of the Waitaki. Sev¬ 
eral dead and “spent” fish measured from three 
feet to three feet ten inches in length. Owing 
to floods when the best run was on, we were 
able to collect only about 50,000 eggs this sea¬ 
son. From the knowledge now acquired with 
regard to the run of fish in rivers further in¬ 
land, afrangements will be made to collect eggs 
on several streams next season. A point which 
will be interesting to salmon authorities is that 
as far as we have gone we have had no “sum¬ 
mer” run of salmon; they have always come in 
April, May and June—months which correspond, 
as regards season, with November, December 
and January in the Northern hemisphere, and the 
months when the “winter” run of chinook sal¬ 
mon takes place in the Sacramento. Now, I 
understand that the five shipments of eggs im¬ 
ported to this country from 1900 to 1907 were 
all from “winter” run fish, and so far we have 
only had a “winter” run of spawning salmon 
here. 
Only one importation of sockeye salmon eggs 
was made to this country. A shipment of 300,- 
000 was presented to the New Zealand Govern¬ 
ment by the Canadian fisheries department in 
1902. Most of the young fish were planted in* 
streams flowing into Lake Ohau, a lake fed by 
rivers flowing down from the snowy Southern 
Alp Range. In 1905 and 1906 reports were re¬ 
ceived of salmon spawning in the rivers at the 
head of Lake Ohau, but we were not able to 
procure specimens until the “run” which took 
place in April last year. 
The officer who visited the locality reported 
having seen a large number of dead salmon. He 
netted a number of fish and brought six speci¬ 
mens, the examination of which by experts 
proved them to be sockeye. 
The first shipment of whitefish eggs was 
brought from America in 1877, and from that 
year to_ 1904 several shipments were brought 
over. Owing to the want of expert attention 
on the voyage, these shipments generally ar¬ 
rived in indifferent condition, and as none of 
the hatcheries had proper appliances for hatch¬ 
ing the eggs, I am afraid that most of them 
were killed. In 1904 the New Zealand Govern¬ 
ment determined to make a systematic effort to 
acclimatize this fish and erected hatcheries, 
equipped with the proper whitefish hatching jars, 
on Lakes Te Kapo and Kanieri. Four shipments 
of eggs were brought over from 1904 to 1907, 
and as they were carefully packed and selected 
(Continued on page 232.) 
Anglers’ Club of Milwaukee. 
Milwaukee, Wis., July 30 . — Editor Forest and 
Stream: Following are the scores made at the 
contest held Wednesday, 
July 27 : 
ti-ounce. 
%-ounce. 
A. F. Binsfenlieimer. 
. 99 3-15 
98 1-15 
Harry Mullen ... 
. 98 1-15 
98 4-15 
T. A. Forsyth. 
. 98 1-15 
98 8-15 
C. A. Rhine. 
. 97 11-15 
98 1-15 
M. A. Beck. 
. 97 9-15 
98 14-15 
Albert Rahman . 
. 97 5-15 
97 11-15 
C. F. Tolfson. 
98 3-15 
M. H. Williams . 
97 1-15 
97 
W. F. Lathrop . 
96 10-15 
A. F. Bingenheimer won the quarter-ounce 
event with the high score of 99 3/15, which is 
the highest score ever made at any of the con¬ 
tests held by this club. 
The national tournament will be held in Chi¬ 
cago, Aug. 18, 19 and 20. We would like to 
have as many as possible attend this tournament. 
The next contest will be held at Washington 
Park, Wednesday, Aug. 3. 
C. L. Tolfson, Sec’y. 
