TROUT'S TRAVELS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 29, 3 August 1939, Page 11

TROUT'S TRAVELS

IN ICE TO ENGLAND

CONVERTING A SCEPTIC

(Special to the "Evening Post.")

AUCKLAND, This Day.

The adventures of a Taupo trout, which ended its days of usefulness at a schoolboys' feast at Charterhouse, England, was related yesterday by Mr. W. E. Anderson,, secretary of the Employers' Association.

During his visit last year to Europe, where he dttehded the -International Labour Conference at Geneva. ,'Mr. Anderson found that his stories about New; Zealand angling received no credence from Sir John Forbes-Watson, director of-the British National Confederation of Employers, or from the members of his staff. Tourist Department photographs of large fish 'Were considered tb be fakes and aroused hearty laughter.

Upon his return to NeAV Zealand Mr. Anderson .made arrangements to confound the sceptics and, incidentally, to pay acknowledgment fpr kindness recived hy the New Zealanders, by sending Home a large trout preserved in a block of ice.

There was willing co-operation all round the compass. Lieutenant-Colonel W. L. Robitison caught the trout, a beautiful specimen Aveighi'ng 101b. With all dispatch it, was sent to the works of the Auckland Farmers' Freezing Company to be entombed beyond all risk of taint.

The Shaw, Savill, and Albion Company gladly offered free transport on its steamer Akaroa. Here, however, a slightly Gilbertian touch was given to the story by the necessity to obtain two licences—one from the Customs Department tc export the parcel of fish and one from the Marine Department to authorise the export of a trout. The trouj in law. is regarded as a somewhat sacred creature which must not be commercialised.

The second licence had not been completed when the ship sailed,,, and the consignor was informed in tones of grave levity that if it were not forthcoming he would be required to send a wireless to the captain instructing him to destroy the.fish.

Writing on July 14, Sir John ForbesWatson says that a large part of the trout was taken to Charterhouse to grace a feast of his two sons and their friends. "I willnOAV accept all fish stories you, tell me in their entirety," he remarks.