Freshwater Research

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22111, 5 June 1937, Page 14

Freshwater Research

The New Zealand Freshwater Research Committee has gone out of existence after a life of eight years. The life was short, but in that time the committee managed to earn more praise and more blame from those it set out to serve falls to the lot of the great majority of bodies called into being by the public. That alimost all of the blame and a very great deal of the praise were uninformed does not alter the fact. The Marine Department now takes over, and every angler who looked intelligently on the work that the committee accomplished will hope sincerely that that work will not be strangled in a mass of red tape or discouraged out of existence by the somewhat ponderous methods that appear to be of the very nature of Government departments. It is unlikely, however, that this will happen. The present Government has shown a keen interest in research, and appears willing to encourage it in all its branches. There is also the cheerful possibility that the new department will be able to carry on its work quietly, shielded by the slow-moving Government frdm the attacks and criticisms, often frankly personal, that made its life a burden when it was the servant of the acclimatisation societies. The Government, it is to be hoped, will -allow the work to go along naturally, without the fevered search for results and the necessity for interim reports of relatively slight value that were the bugbear of the organisation when almost weekly some acclimatisation society had some demand or -criticism to make. Professor Percival very , modestly stated the achievements of the committee when he said that “ knowledge has been “ obtained and understanding gained about “ a variety of matters which eight years ago “ were nebulous, and that a mass of raw fact “is collected which may be of use to its suc- “ cessors.” Understanding and knowledge have been collected on subjects that were rather less than nebulous. Many were in fact utter blanks, and the committee had not only to find its way through the darkness, but had also to make its own road to travel on. Competent authorities have praised unreservedly the research on natural regeneration that was done by the committee, work which has laid the foundations of further investigation into a subject which applies not to fish alone, but to every form of life. The operations of the committee were greatly hampered by the hostility of fishermen who would regard as good nothing that did not immediately increase the size, number, and gullibility of the fish in their streams. Results of this nature in so short a time could not. of course, be expected, but the failure of the committee to produce them on request was too often the cause of a niggardly response from anglers when the committee asked for funds. Under a Government department, the continuity that is essential to research should be easy to attain. It remains for the department to see that the work is carried on on the lines indicated by the committee in its recommendations. These lines are at present almost pure science, but the investigations are leading steadily .to practical conclusions.