OBITUARY

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 141, 18 June 1927, Page 9

OBITUARY

MR. L F, AYSON

Only-ft-few weeks after his retirement, Mr. L. F. .Ayson, until recently Chief Inspector of Fisheries, who lias been in failing health for some time, died last night.

The late Mr. Ayson was one to whom both the anglers of the Dominion" and the Government which he served for 28 years are greatly indebted for the excellent angling which has helped to advertiso New Zealand, and for the establishment of Quinnat and Atlantic salmon. Mr. Ayson's interest in fish was inherited from his father, a keen angler, and it was in the offorts made to acclimatise. trout in Otago, in which he. assisted, that the late Mr. Ayson first becamo actively interested in pisciculture. In 1885 he was appointed to the position of Supervisor of the Masterton Hatchery by the Wellington Acclimatisation Society, a position which he held for fifteen years; considerably assisting other societies, as they were formed, in the lay-out of hatcheries and by his advice. When in 1899 be was appointed Chief Inspector of Government Fisheries, he turned his attention to marine fishes also, and almost immediately commenced the attempt* to acclimatise salmon which under his direction proved so successful. His system wwj to eoncentrato on one river, in the assumption that when that was stocked the fish would

spread naturally to others, and it is due to this system, initiated in 1899, that imccess has been, secured. Mr. Ayson, besides the acclimatisation' of Atlantic sajinon and Quinnat salmon, had devoted attention to the artificial extension -of th,e rock-oyster beds of the North, and his work in the Bay of Islands in this' direction proved most successful. ( . Although he had a vast amount of travelling, often during the night, so as to be able to utilise the day hours, yet Mr. Ayube found time for study jn both marine and fresh-water pisciculture, and though, as a pioneer in such studies as related to New Zealand he was faced with tremendous obstacles in the absence of records on which to work, on his retirement he had accumulated a vast amount of information which it had been his intention to incorporate in the form of a book. He had travelled extensively outside New Zealand in the course of investigations regarding salmon, having visited America several times, England several times, and Europe. Indefatigable and keenly enthusiastic in all pertaining to his work, the late Mr. Ayson did not spare himself, and as his work took him out in all weathers, and most of it was done in the coldest part of the winter, the physical strain was immense.

Mrs. Ayson predeoeased her husband fourteen years ago. There aro six sons, Messrs. W. D. Ayson (Wanganul), C. L. Ayson (Hakataramea), IJ. p. Ayson (Commissioner of the Cook Islands, Barotonga), G. D. Ayson (Wellington), L. D. Ayson (Masterton), and F. C. Ayspn (Wellington). The funeral will take place on Monday afternoon at the Taita Cemetery,