OTAGO INSTITUTE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 5938, 19 February 1881, Page 3

OTAGO INSTITUTE.

A meeting of the Otago Institute was held in the Library-room of the Museum last evening. Mr Montgomery (vice-president), Professor Parker (secretary), and 20 members wero present. .: • XEW MEMBER. The Vice-president announced that Mr Sydney Fulton had been elected a member of the Institute. ; THE HISTORY OF FISII CULTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Mr Arthur read a paper on the " History of Fish Culture in New Zealand." The paper dealt exhaustively with the subject referred to, and touched upon the history of fish culture in America, France, and Germany. It was mentioned that the experience of other countries demonstrated the fact that the cultivation of water acre for acre could bo made more profitable than the cultivation of land. Fish culture, from a scientific experiment, had become a gigantic industry, and the American Government, and all European Governments, except that of England, had encouraged it. The results of what Americans called "fish factories" were surprising. Streams whore fish were dying out had been replenished, and streams that never had had fish in.them had been plentifully stocked.' What, then, could be accomplished in New Zealand, and especially in the South Island, with its clear cool streams, free from the enemies of salmon. The question was -one of great importance, and should receive. far more encouragement from the Government. The operations of the Auck- j land Society had not apparently been marked with I great success, and the opinion was expressed that although the temperature of (he water might not be too high for Californian salmon, that except in some few mountain streams it was too high for brown trout. There was no evidence that trout exist in any of the Auckland streams but Californian salmon were reported to have been caught in the Thames, the Waikato and its tributaries. The operations of the Wanganui,: Wellington, Hawke's Bay, Southland and Canterbury Societies were also sketched, and the portion of the paper referring to the Otago Society was as follows :—" This Society which was founded in ISG4,. devoted its efforts for some yeais to procuring; English insectivorous and song birds, wherein great success was attained But in 186S it sent its manager, Mr Clifford, to Tasmania who got from the Salmon Commissioners there SOO ova of the trout— safoio/an'o—as mentioned in my paper on brown: trout., read bef. re this Institute in July 1878. A subsequent lot of 1000 was obtained in the following year from the same source, and both were very successfully hatched at the Society's ponds by or under the immediate care of Mr Clifford • 720 of the former and nearly air the latter he hatched out. In July, IS7O, Mr Clifford brought from Tasmania fully 1000 ova of brown trout and 140 ova of the sea trout, and successfully hatched out at the Society's ponds even' ova ' No such feat has ever before been achieved in fish culture so far as I have read or seen. These young trout lormed the orfginnl stock from which most of the streams in Otago may now be said to be stocked in measure. I should, however, mention here that a previous lot of 400 ova, brought from Tasmania for the Otago bocicty in ; September, -ISG7, by Mr Johnson, curator of the Canterbury Acclimatisation Society proved to be all dead on arrival in Dunedin The original trout ova from England, brought successfully to Tasmania, were obtained from the rivers Wcieombe (Buckinghamshire), and the Wey and Itchen (Hampshire). Our brown trout are descendants of these, but I have not been able to trace the identity further nor to find out _ more than that all of the ova from the above three English streams did not hatch out equally well in Tasmania,- Since ISGB and up to the end of 1880 the Society,has distributed about 110,390 trout ova. to different provinces in the North and South Islands of New Zealand. For the season of 1830 just passed, there were 57,600 thus disposed of. The method of -packing. these, recently and successfully earned out by Mr Deans, has bjen in small deal boxes about 15 inches square by! six inches deep. A good layer of soft damp moss is laid on the bottom which carries a layer of eggs, or ova of the trout, with gauze above and below. On the top of these eggs another ayerof wet moss is carefully spread, then another layer-of eggs, and so on, the top being well protected by moss, also the sides of the box. Wo have found the ova carried thug for a week or eight days successfully to places as far off as Napier and Auckland but during this last season ice hasbeen used,- a sufficient quantity being packed ™,inS?7 ova boxes. The result has been eminent y. good, not 5 per cent, of the ova having bad.: I may add that our system is a modification of the American plan, and is, I think, an improvement on it. -Of younjr trout distributed throughout Otago; during the same period, I find from the Society's records that 150,000 have been put into 150 streams, rivers, and lakes, whereof about 40,000 wero iSS ™u tf ™m January to the end of December, r^ft. p ?f S° - rou, t haven the sh*S River, Water-of-Leith,, Fulton's Creek, Lee and Deep Streams, Waiwera Kumvao, Teviot, and about Lake Wakafpu, «i W e? kl, ll V ncreasod enormously in numbers, and that in the face of losses caused by such enemies as shags, ducks, eels, large trout, bad floods during : spawning time^poaching, and so on. In many other Jl,»m i \ have also increased and established themselves, but «or to so great an exent as in those above named. Into the Deep Stream 100, and into the Lee 98 young trout were turned in ISC9, and no additions have been sent to those at any time—till lately w.tViT 0. Y era. sent t0 the- : Leo-yet these riveri ..wero full ortrout. As to the growthof these trout, I may give the following facts :—ln December 1879. I caught trout in the -Oawarama weighing 51b each. I With Mroi ed/o dpIa);?d for "aUan >10ur- in c°mPa»y hhvn » ■\a c?, nnf '. a trout' which 1 know must have weighed Sib, hut which was lost in netting Trout were first put into this stream in 1875. One of the young Messrs > Grieves, of Rocklands Station, in February or March,'lßßo, caught a trout in the Upper Sf O ™7^ C h^fH hcd ,? Olb ' nnd Mr John Roberts informs me that Ins shepherds have seen them 801b weight, and have caught and weighed them a pod deal -over 201b. Trout were first Into - this -_nver in 1870. Now, ■ supposing the nrti 11") »he> 29 1b fish to be snrvivors of the ongmal_ stock m these two rivers, their yearly growth shows an increase at the rate of ljlb and 21b respectively. , -This is a wonderful rate, and shows that, at the. present time, there' must be abundance' and suitable food in the two streams I have selected i thn^ mpi2e3- 1?a?wo Umbla <the chair) of this fish, a thousand ova.were presented to the Otago Society ."^ "» «w ship Timaru in April, 1576, Of these umhiwn °Ut at *£ POnds' From a «««»«> on the umbhcalbag many died, and of the 12 lift at last the ' Gtek %l S£? d ar d il aYe disaPPe«ed in the Opoho » rWl£fc?,i errmS., to tho t atteu.pt to introduce the English salmon, Mr Arthur mentioned that it had * ended miserably, and that he-considered it very un- ' on the part of the Government to hive selecteS a ' tnbutaryoftheMolyneux,pollutedasitwas,asastream ] WvffiL y mUnSß!}iT n in l Tho Aparimaor evenTto ■« Wyndham would have been far more likely rivers in ' which success might have been; reckoned on Mr ;-ta&l^r'f efer- rCd to, the efforts of the Society to fn- * Jln d»? fon"a- n salmon and whiteflsh, and con- } eluded with a minute description of the Society's ( breeding.ponda.ttt Opoho, and of the system adopted 5 fortoe propagation^ fi s h throughout the Colony. ! Dr CouairrßEy and Mr R; Gillies made remarks '* concernmgthesubjectof the paper, and actnoS^d ' the care and ability displayed init.-: : . <■

: This concluded the business.