SEA FISHERIES AND TROUT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 12472, 1 October 1902, Page 4

SEA FISHERIES AND TROUT.

oouree. It would be a good idea if the olub would bestow a little extra attention to. the track before the ground becomes hard and difficult to work. Several horses are in active commission, at Oamaru, and claim immediate engagements at the Kurow, Dunedin, and Oamaru meetings, and the olub would be conferring a boon on. the local trainers by increasing the ordinary current expenditure on the tracks. Morris Evans has a. quartet in hand at present, 'and they are Tsaritsa, Petrovna, Poltava, and Floradora. The first-named has done a lot of work sirfce she was taken up some time ago, but is still on the big side, but she races well in that condition, as instance the Welter she wou in Oamaru last spring,' when, to the casual eye, the mare appeared to be as beefy as a' bullock. Petrovna is backward or l not so forward in condition as her full sister, 'Hie weather is he

brood in burrows in the ground, because there are no trees to nest in. And tho tree lizard on Green Island, near Brighton, finds a habitation under flat stones, because there are no trees with loose hanging bark to climb under. The attempt of the Acclimatisation Society to establish an inland breed of salmon, wherewith to stock the cold lakes is a case in point, and a species of free ocean-ranging trout would nob do greater Violence to the recognised habits of .the Salmoiudfe. We bring under Mr Begg's notice the fact that the chairman of the Wellington Acclimatisation Society recognises the possibility of change of habit dud to altered environment. In a paper published in the "Transactions of fcne New Zealand Institute for 1900" Mr Rutherford, referring to trout, says: "My theory is, that whatever variety we liberate of the ordinary species of trout, it will develop into a Salmo Novse Zenlandire. . . I do not think that those fish will retain the characteristics of the variety found in the environment from which they were taken, and consider' that the results already obtained in New Zealand have proved this." Again, referring to the salmon, he says: "It lias been urged that it is a pity to introduce fish which do not, as a rule, give good sport in our rivers, though. they are excellent sporting fish 'in the sea and' estuaries. Ido not think we need fear this at all. lit introducing these fish we are stocking the ocean with very valuable fish from a commercial point of view, and I can see no reason why several varieties of salmon should not flourish on our coasts and run Up the rivers at different times of the year, as they do in the western rivers in Canada and the United States, in countless thousands." With regard to licensed netting, "Angler," whose letter we published yesterday, refers to the opinions held in the United Kingdom, where these privileges are being curtailed, but he overlooks the fact that netting salmon constitutes an enormous industry, on the Pacific const of North America. We are pleased to learn that the Acclimatisation Society is in possession of such conclusive evidence that the big trout do run up our rivers to .spawn in considerable number.?. We made no. definite statement to the contrary, and still consider it a moot point whether a sea-going variety of this fine fish may not develop in its new environment. . JFuture experience alone can determine the point. While conserving the privileges of the sportsman, the rights of the fisherman should not be ignored. Licensed netting undef proper safeguards and restrictions might not be such, a wrong thing as! Mr Begg appears to assume,- and, in any case, the privilege coulfi at any time be withdrawn should it be found to operate agiiinst. the interests of anglers to an appreciable extent. Theory can best be proved by practice, and until something is done to meet the fishermen halfway the present amount of friction will not be allayed, aitol illegal netting will not cease, much as breaches of the law are to be deprecated.