SPORT IN NEW ZEALAND.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 18 February 1907, Page 1

SPORT IN NEW ZEALAND.

I INTERVIEW WITH A MUCHTRAVELLED Sr-ORTSMAN. FINEST FISHING IN THE WORLD. Mr W. H. Seton-Karr, who is well arid widely known as a traveller and sportsman, arrived in Christchurch recently from the South. He is tbe author of a number of well-known books of travel, and has made about 20 trips after big game in tropical Africa, not counting some 25 visits to (Egypt. He has also undertaken about 120 sporting trips to India, and has been in America (Rocky Mountains), Russia and other countries. To a "Press" representative who interviewed him, Mr Seton-Karr said it was nine years since his first visit to New Zealand, and he noticed a wonderful improvement in the country. He had just come from a visit ' to Lakes Manapouri and Wanaka, and the mouth of the Waiau River in Southland. In answer to a question as to his opinion of sport in New Zealand, Mr Seton-Karr said :"I should say thatNew Zealanders are, as a whole, the keenest sportsmen I've ever met in the world. If a fish is to be caught, or a deer to be shot, they will do it. My visit nine years ago to New Zealand was merely as a tourist, but last year I did some fishing in this country. The only fishing comparable to it that I ever had was in Finland. That country is dotted all over with lakes, and these lakes converge in the northern part into an enormous river called the Vuoksa. On that river half the fishing is owned by the Czar oi Russia, arid half by a small club of Englishmen in St. Petersburg, the British Ambassador being the president. I visited the fishing pond with the Imperial dentist, who is an Englishman, and the trout we caught averaged 231 b each. In New aland I think trout-fishing has reached its apogee. I should say that it will not get any better than it is now. Certainly it is the finest fishing in he world at the present moment." Speaking of catches of fish, Mr SetonKarr said: "I bolieve I hold the world's record for trout caught with one rod in one day. The catch wa--175 fish landed. The place where thi catch was made was in a tributary i the Windrl River, in Lappmark, North crn Sweden. I belong to the Fly Fish ers' Club in England, which contain: all the best fly fishers in England and I would suggest that some of those who talk about angling in England and Wales should come out and try theii skill on the enormous fish in Lake; Manapouri and Wakatipu." Mr Seton-Karr added a suggestion that we should introduce into the colony the harmless black bears from Kashmir. This particular species of bear lives in trees, is vegetarian, would not harm any other animal, and its skin is valuable. Mr F. L. Ayson, Chief Inspector of Fisheries, was to leave San Francisco on Sunday week with a consignment of half a million quinnat salmon, for the Government's Hakataramea hatcheries, and two million white fish for Lakes ITekapo and Kanieri. He will also bring to New Zealand some live striped bass, which will most likely be placed in the estnaries of some of the rivers flowing into the Hauraki Gulf. These, however, I will be only an experimental shipment, and it is quite probable that they will not survive the voyage. In the case of these fish it is not possible to bring out the eggs, as is done with salmon, for the reason that they hatch out in four or five days. Mr Ayson is also bringing out for' the Canterbury Acclimatisation Society some Atlantic salmon, which can now be procured ou the Pacific Coast. A few of the quinnat salmon otrgs and also of the white fish eggs will be hatched out of the Exhibition aquarium, and the rearing of the young fish there should be watched with a good deal of interest. Cleanse the system from si) 'mp-iri-ties, making good ( '- i blood by t--.'rn(j Or Ensor't Tame! Juice, obtainable »t (i. F. BinfcsUa. With the advent of spring comes Victory butter. If you appreciate delicious butter made on the most approved scientific principles, ask your grrcpr for Victory, and take nothing c' "I went from New Zealand with the idea that if you wanted to paint a , picture the nearer to Nature you got the better — the idea being simply a coloured photograph— and Mr Alfred East, the great English landscape painter, shocked me extremely by saying : 'No, Nature is all very well ; but she is often defective, and requires to be improved upon.'"' The speaker was Miss 0. Stodart, a well-known Christchurch Christchurch artist, who recently returned from Europe, and they make that an excuse for their own shortcomings. Since I returned from Europe I have been struck by the amount of 'atmosphere,' and the magnificent effects that are to be obtained here in spite of the dry weather. On the whole, I think that in England the temptation is to paint the works of man — which ate so beautiful becauso they have become moulded by age and weather ; but in New Zealand ono turn 3 from these and goes to Nature alone. Nothing can mako a galvanised iron roof look beautiful, and tho American pump windmill is certainly not an equivalent for the old moss-grown well." « ■ii Am^mmmm i m