SALMON TROUT.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 9137, 22 June 1895, Page 10

SALMON TROUT.

TO TUB EDITOR OF THE PRESS. Sir,—l have only just road the report of the Acclimatisation Society, and I am glad to see that it is in a fairly flourishing condition. There is one thing, however, on which information is needed to present the perpetuation of mistake. Under the head " distribution of fish " I find it stated that 7000 salmon trout were liberated in the Waimakariri and 1000 sold. Can the Garden Committee tell mc from whence thase were obtained ? Are they from ova direct from England or were they from fish in the Gardens; and if so had these so-called salmon trout ever been to sea before spawning? I think this matter should be cleared up, as I was not aware that there were any real salmon trout in the colony.

But if they are salmon trout a more useless proceeding than turning them into the Waimakariri caunot be imagined, and must have arisen from total ignorance of their life history. Salmon trout, sea trout, bull trout, sewin peal—it is all the same fish—is a more sea-going fish than the salmon itself, It only comes into the fresh water to spawn, making only a short stay; spending three-parts of its time in the salt water, and having a far leas wide southern range than the salmon, never being found in Europe south of the Seine and Loire, and even there but seldom. After the many thousands of salmon that have been turned into the Waimakariri and proved failures, what possible good is likely to be derived from a mere driblet of salmon trout turned into the same river ? If we have really any salmon trout, which I doubt, at lease give them a chance, and not turn them out simply to make food for the pirates of the sea.—Yours, Sec, W. H. Spaokman.