QDINNAT SALMON

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 34, 9 February 1926, Page 8

QDINNAT SALMON

IN NEW ZEALAND WATERS

"MOST VALUABLE FOOD FISH IN WORLD"

LAKE TAUPO'S TEOUT FAME,

The success of Mr. L. F. Ayson, Chief Inspector of Fisheries, in establishing our Pacific salmon in your waters has attracted worldwide attention. . . . If you can build up big runs of salmon in your riv -a you will have the most valuable food fish in the world. —Mr. John P. Babcoek, chairman of the International Fisneries Commission.

Dr. C. H. Gilbert, Professor of Zoology, Stanford University, California, and Mr. John P. Babcock, of Victoria, British Columbia, chairman of the International Fisheries "Commission,' and executive officer of the British Columbia Fisheries Department, who have come to New Zealand mainly on holiday, but who while here will investigate the question of the establishment of quinnat and Atlantic salmon in New Zealand waters, arrived in Wellington last evening, accompanied by Mr. L. F. Ayson, Chief Inspector of Fisheries of the Dominion.

Dr. Gilbert is the greatest authority on the life history of Pacific salmon. Mr. Babcock has been associated with him in fisheries investigation, for upwards of forty years. The International Fisheries Commission was created as a result of what was known as the Halibut Treaty between Canada and the United States in 1924, for the investigation and administration of the halibut fisheries of the Pacific, in Vhich industry Canada and the United States are jointly interested. THe halibut products of the north-west coast of North America produce about ten million dollars' worth of halibut a year.

Dr. Gilbert and Mr. Babcoek came to New Zealand via Fiji and Tonga, where they spent some weeks, landing at Auckland on 25th January. TOUR OF NORTH ISLAND. "We came to New Zealand," Mr. Babcock stated to-day, "for pleasure and rest. . During the last ten days we hare hurriedly passed through Botorua, Taupo, and Waitomo, and reached Wellington via the Wanganui Eiver. Brief as our stops have been, they have been filled with; interest. That part of the North Island we hay been privileged to see has been most beautiful —more beautiful and interesting than we were led to expect. "BEST TROUT PISHING IN THE WORLD." "We stopped off one day for fishing at Taupo. You are truly warranted in. claiming for Taupo that it has 'the best trout fishing waters in the world.' I have fished," said Mr. Babcock, "in most North American waters, and none of them have producejd so. many and such large trout. In seven hours we took 21 fish that weighed 971b. The largest weighed 71b, and the smallest 2}lb. We saw a fish that weighed 131b which was taken that day with a fly, and we were assured that the day before that one rod had taken 60 trout which weighed 3211b. I know of no waters that will afford as good catches." WONDERFUL GLOW-WORM CAVES. "The glow-worms of Waitomo Caves are the eighth wonder of the world," remarked Mr. Babcock. "In this respect, the caves are one of the most novel exhibitions of life afforded anywhere. MR. L. F. AYSON'S MARVELLOUS SUCCESS. "We have been most fortunate in having your Mr* Ayson's company, down the Wanganui Eiver, i and we hope he may go South with us. We have long been familiar with Mr. Ayson's work in New Zealand. His success in introducing and establishing our Pacific salmon in your waters has attracted ■world-wide attention.

"It is the only case," added the distinguished visitor with emphasis,'' in which the quinnat salmon have been successfully acclimatised in waters other than on the Pacific Coast of North America. Repeated efforts have I been made to introduce them into Atlantic waters without success. Though distinct from the true salmon, the sal-mo-salar of Europe and the Atlantic waters ,of North America, they are the finest of all salmon, and are one of the best food fishes known, and one of the ganiest fish as well. The reports that they will not take a fly in fresh water is without foundation. Many have been taken in our waters with a fly. I have repeatedly taken them with a fly. They take a spoon readily in fresh and salt waters. There are several hundred professional fishermen in British Columbia who fish for the market by trolling in salt waters, and they catch many thousands of quinnat that j ma from 251b to 601b in weight." NEW ZEALAND'S PROBLEM. "In British Columbia alone the market value of the salmon industry is from 13 to 15 million dollars a year. Our problem on the Pacific Coast has been to conserve the salmon runs we have. Your problem in New Zealand has been to acclimatise the fish. Your problem is to build up the industry to the greatest possible extent. Your immediate desire should not be to catch out what you have got, but let the fish go ahead until they increase in vast numbers, as they possibly may, in equal nuihbers to your trout. If you can build up big runs of salmon in your rivers, you will have the most valuable food fish in the world. The fact that you have brought the fish out and have them established here—for they have been caught in numbers in your different rivers—shows that the conditions in New Zealand are more or less favourable. The only question, then, is: how great the runs of salmon will be in. your rivers? There is a limit of production in any watershed, just as there is a limit to a stock range. It" ia the limit of food and of the feeding ground. ATLANTIC SALMON. "The question, of the acclimatisation and establishment of Atlantic salmon is a matter of more than New Zealand interest. The United States Government, and the Governments of Oregon, Washington, California, and British Columbia have been trying for twenty years to establish the Atlantic salmon in the waters of their several territories, and outside of a few adult specimens which have been taken in British Columbia the efforts have not been successful, although'we are still hopefulof success. On the other hand, we have been assured that numerous adult specimens have been taken in different rivers in New Zealand.

Dr. Gilbert and Mr. Babeock leave for the South to-night, and intend to pay special attention to the waters in which quinnat salmon have been taken, and hope to secure sufficient specimens to enable them to determine the life history or the fish in these waters. The visitors intend to leave the Bluff for Melbourne, Sydney, and Tasmania in the first week in next month.

A new Manx homespun tweed, so ingeniously woven that it does not show holes, has just been placed on the market. A London tailor, showing the cloth to a pressman, plunged a pointed pencil through it. When the pencil was removed the'fabric at once closed together again, leaving not the least suggestion of a "hole. "You cannot puncture it, 1" he said. "You could only make a hole by actually cutting it with a sharp knife pi; burning it with a cigarette end."