TROUT AS A "PEST"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22608, 22 December 1936, Page 5

TROUT AS A "PEST"

CANTERBURY DISCISSION

GRAYLING AND WHITEBAIT • "Trout are as big a pest as stoats or weasels," said Mr. R Wild, at a meeting of the Canterbury Education Hoard. ''lt is all right having them in our lakes, but they should not be allowed in our rivers and streams. In our creeks and rivers they have exterminated grayling. They have practically exterminated the whitebait also." Ho quoted tlie case of a tory on the West Coast which used to handle some dozens of tins of whitebait in a good clay, and which was now doing well if it handled half-a-dozen tins. "It is not that they eat the whitebait themselves, but that they devour the mother fish when they come out of the sea to spawn'," he continued. "Surely it is ridiculous to suggest that trout should not be encouraged for the sake of a few whitebait," suggested one member. "1 ilo not think that anyone would wish to argue that." said Mr. C. S. Thompson, and discussion on the damage done by trout was then dropped. These remarks had been provoked by a report from the appointments committee, which bad received a deputation from the North Canterbury Acclimatisation Society asking permission to send circulars to headmasters and to give lectures in schools about the conservation of aquatic and bird life. Mr. Thompson said that the board should help the society as much as possible, and Mr. G. Benstead said that the requests should b5 approved without any alteration. This was finally agreed *to by the meeting without any dissent.