[SALMON OVA FOR NEW ZEALAND.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXIV, Issue 3352, 14 April 1868, Page 4

[SALMON OVA FOR NEW ZEALAND.

Thk following communication from Mr. Prank BuckUnd, the well-known editor of Land and Water, and Inspector of Salmon Fisheries, appears in the Times of January 18th :— TO THE BDITOR OP THB "EVENING Mi.Ui." Sir,— The Provincial Government of Otago, New Zealand, during the course of last year voted through Mr. John Auld, W.S., of Edinburgh, the resident agent for Otago, the aum of £1,000 for the introduction of salmon into one of the three chief rivers of the province — viz., the Waitangi, the Molyneux, and the Maiura. These rivers rise from mountains, and. where not interfered with by the washing of gold ore, have good tributaries in which the fish, it is trusted, will eventually make their nests ; and good estuaries in which the smolts may grow into adult salmon. The clipper ship « Celestial Queen,' commanded by Captain Watt, has been chosen as the bearer of this valuable oargo. A. compartment measuring 16ffc. by 12ft. and lift, high has been built abaft the fore hatch ; this occupies the space of 55 tons. It is lined throughout with sheet lead, and is completely isolated by means of a 9-inch layer oi charcoal. The cover, or rather plug, for the entrance is also rammed with charcoal and covered with sheet lead. When the boxes of ova are deposited and the complement of ice is auperadded, the plug is soldered down from the outside, and the ice-house, with ita valuable contents, is hermetically sealed. The obtaining a large quantity of salmon eggs in good condition has caused anxiety to those who undertook the experiment, but byicontinubug exertions they have now collected and stowed away in the icehouses boxes containing, as approximately calculated, upwards of 200,000 ova. t.?J?or permission to take these the Government oi Otago have to thank the Boards of Conservators and riparian proprietors of the rivers Severn, Wye, Tyne, Dovery, and Tweed, as well as Major Horsfall, oi Screbe, county of Galway. Experienced persons have been employed to take the ova from the parent fish — an operation which, if carefully performed, does not injure the fish in the least. The ova were immediately brought down by express trains to St. Katharine's Docks, and at once packed in the boxes and stowed away in the icehouse. The mode of packing is as follows : A sprinkling of charcoal, as a purifier, is first laid at the bottom, of each box, then a handful of pounded ice ; over this a bed of freshly-washed moss, the i uppjr portion of which is left loose and soft for the ova. These are then poured out of the vessel in which they are brought over the moss in a thin layer, probably from 500 to 1,000. Another layer of moss is gently placed over them, then a sprinkling of water, and another handful of ice. The box is then screwed down and transferred at once to the icehouse. Here the boxes are laid side by side as closely as they will pack on the grating at the bottom of the floor of the lead chamber, and huge blocks of Wenham Lake ice. two feet square, are laid on the top of them. This operation is continued until the whole floor is covered with boxes. The blocks of ice fit closely together over them, any interstices being carefully filled in as the blocks are piled up, until the superstructure is completed and the whole space presents one so'id mass of ice. On the very top of the ice another layer of boxes is again placed, wedged against the ceiling. In order to stock the lakes of New Zealand several boxes containing the ova of the " ombre chevalier," a species of charr, have been brought with very great personal labour by Mr. B. Y. Linden from the neighbourhood of Munich. These have been presented by the King of Bavaria, whose officers afforded Mr. Linden every facility in obtaining them from the Royal preserves. A box of these has been presented to me by Mr. Linden, and I have transferred them to General Seymour. They will be hatched out in the slate breeding troughs which have now been at work for the last two years, under the immediate superintendence of Mr. J. Menzies, in Windsor Great Park, for the purpose of stocking the Obelisk-pond with great lake trout. The whole of the details of packing the various ova in the boxes have been undertaken by Mr. J. Youl, who has given his gratuitous and experienced services in this most important affair. Mr. Youl's name is well known both in England and Australia asthegentlemtnwho has already sent out two consignments of salmon ova to the antipodes, and the public, both of Tasmania and New Zealand, have ample reason for gratitude to this most energetic and painstaking gentleman. Living fiah will also be sent out on board the ' Celestial Queen'— viz., gudgeon from the Tharne*, presented by Mr. S. Ponder, who has now in his hatching troughs at Hampton upwards of 70,000 salmon ova for the Thames. Carp and tench presented by Mr. Higford Burr, of Aldermaston-park, and ako some eggs of pure Dorking fowls, presented by Mr. H. D. Harrison, of Cuckfield, were placed in the ice-house, to see if the low temperature will arrest the development in them, as it has been proved to do in the case of the egga of fish. Should the experiment^ succeed it will open up a new feature in practical natural history — i.e., the transport of the eggs of valuable game birds from distant localities. We therefore look forward to the result with anxiety. An experiment will also be tried with English native oysters from the river Roach, Essex, presented by Mr. F. Wiseman, of Paglesham. Oysters are found naturally in New Zealand, bnt if the culture of a better class could be instituted there is a chance of an additional source of food being supplied to the colony. The superintendence of the salmon ova, the living fish, &c., has been intrusted to Mr. R. Dawben, who has been engaged expressly to accompany them to Otago ; he will also for two years take the superintendence of the breeding establishment in Otago. For my own part, I have contributed the eggs of the river trout — they are now doing exceedingly well in Tasmania— taken by myself from fish in the park of the Earl of Essex, at Cassiobury, and presented by his Lordship, a series of preparations illustrating the development of a salmon from the egg to the adult fish of 301b. weight, and also plaster casts of British fish, with a view of forming a nucleus of a museum in Otago. The very numerous details of this great and important experiment of transferring the ova of the most valuable of British fish, with a view of affording a new and excellent food to our friends and relations at the antipodes, could not have been carried out except by some active mind to regulate and control the necessary machinery. Mr. William Carr Young, who resided 13 years at Dunedin, Otago, has been requested by the Provincial Government to undertake the supervision of all the arrangements, and they ought to be exceedingly obliged to him for the manner in which he has conducted the experiment in England. No hitch whatever has oocurred in any part of his well-con-sidered plans, and by the untiring energy he himself has shown he has enlisted the personal activity and interest of his staff of assistants ; for in a matter of this kind, where so much depends upon extreme care and promptitude, friendly zeal and co-operation are absolutely necessary to bring the experiment to the successful conclusion now so happily accomplished. The • Celestial Queen ' will leave the docks this morning at 4 a.m. She is expected to arrive at Otago in about 90 days, and may good luck go with her ! —I remain, yours obediently, Frank Bitokland, Inspector of Salmon Fisheries. 4, Old Palace-Yard, Westminster, J. , 16, 1868.

A correspondent of the Brisbane Courier supplies the following particulars of an outrage committed on St. Patrick's Day at Leyburn :— " It is novr just one week since the patron saint's day of Ireland was commemorated ; and I have to tell you, as an Irishman, that at the time the neighbouring communities were sympathising and deploring the cowardly and murderouß attempt on the life of the Duke of Edinburgh by a designing assassin, a moat disgraceful and outrageous scene w»s enacted in Leyburn, in the broad daylight— l may aay under the eye 3 of the police. On the day referred to— the 17fch of March —the proprietor of the Royal Mail Hotel caused the Union Jack flsg to be hoisted in front of his house and during the afternoon of that day the flag was drawn down, trampled upon, and finally burned ia the principal thoroughfare of the town. During the commission of this act, the most seditious and treasonable language was used towards her Majesty and regret was expressed that the Prince was not shot dead. As I have said before, these disgraceful scenes occurred almost under the eyes of the police. 1 ' We are happy to learn that the Nelson Acclimatisation Society has just received two very important additions to its "live stock." By the 'Phoebe,' which arrived on Thursday lait, Mr. Huddleston, the indefatigable Secretary of the Society, received a consignment of 200 black carp forwarded from Sydney, and which, we belierej came originally from the Mauritius. By the • Airedale' on Sunday morning 37 Californian quail were forwarded to the Society from Auckland, and have arrived in a very healthy state. This will form a most valuable accession to our present stock of game birds. They are much larger than the English quail, and their plumage is handsomer, and they are much esteemed by epicures. Those presented some time since by Sir George Grey have thriven and bred, and we may therefore anticipate that so large an importa> tion of this valuable bird will be speedily attended by appreciable results.— Nelson Evening Mail, April 7,