OTAGO ACCLIMATISATION SOCIETY,

Otago Witness, Issue 1958, 30 May 1889, Page 16

OTAGO ACCLIMATISATION SOCIETY,

' The annua| meeting of > the Otago, Acclimatisation Society was held fin. the; Land Board's Office, Government Buildings, on Tuesday afternoon. Mr J. P. Maitland presided, and among those present were Messrs J. Wilkie, G. P. Clifford, A. O. Begg, R. Chisholm, P. Stoddart, G. Marshall, D. Russell, and J. Deans. ANNUAIi BBPOBT, < The twenty-third annual report of the society, which appears in our angling column was taken as read. . , The balance sheet showed a credit balance in' the bank of £286 2s 6d, and total assets amounting to £2023 0s lid. u> . . < " ' Mr A. C. Begg, in submitting the financial report, stated that the report submitted at the last annual meeting" was for a period of 15 months, the date, of the closing .of. the financial year having been changed, and that comparison between the' two statements was .therefore rendered difficult. The. trout and game licenses showed only a difference of a few shillings. This showed that at anylrajbe they had not been in- , creasing the number of licenses issued, but .just holding their, own. He, thought 'some effort should be made in future to increase the number of fishers, and especially to get^an increase in the number of licenses takenlout, by lads, fo^r : unless they got the young people tp take to .the sport, there would be a falling off in thi licenses. The sales of .fish ova had been more .than double what they had been during the preceding 15 months, but it was not' likely that during the coming, year .they would sell ova, to anything like the same amount. The expenses, at Clinton had been a good deal more 'than the expenses at Dunedin, and it might be well tb,at they should consider' the advisability of concentrating their efforts. In concluding, Mr Begg expressed his willingness to answer any quest, •tions. ' ' The President," m moving the adoption of the report, said that it was a long, and interests ing one, its compilers having .dealt with every' subject under a separate heading, and, given ' the amplest information about the' work of the society. Hethougtit'that they might congratulate themselves upon the work of the .year. So far as the council was concerned, the work had been carried on in a most satisfactory manner, without a single drawback or accident. The largest, the most important, and he might say. the most national work the society had in hand was of coarse the rearing and breeding of salmon., This was a matter of interest to the whole Southern Hemisphere. The result of last year's operations was that the society turned out about 98,000 salmon' into the Aparima river, the Government having indicated that, the experiment should be confined to that fiver, besides hundreds into other rivers, and it was estimated that the society had now in its boxes about 300,000 salmon ova. He had seen the boxes recently, and could say that the young salmon at Clinton looked exceedingly well. The first shipment had yielded an unprecedented percentage of good eggs, something over. 90 per cent.,, but the second. shipment had 'not been so successful by about 30 per cent. It was a matter of satisfaction to the society to' be able to cooperate with the Government and to help in this national work. He hoped, as they all did, that the great problem of the establishment of salmon in our waters would be solved before long. So far as the progress of . the fish in fresh water was concerned the question had been satisfactorily determined. They had found beautiful specimens of the fish ready to go into the sea, so that of their river life there was not the slightest [doubt. The only , thing that could now be done was to protect j them as far as 'possible from their natural enemies, the eels and shags. Of course the big question had yet, to be solved as to whether the. salmon would live in the sea, and that they would not know till they found the. fish return to the rivers. From the returns it "would be seen that the society was getting large returns from their stock .fish, and that they, were breeding trout of all varieties in a highly satisfactory manner, and had turned out last year into various rivers no less than 431,000 young trout. The results obtained did not correspond with this, and it ' pointed to the necessity . of, doing something more effectual against' the natural enemies of the young fish. Ib seemed as though the efforts of the society' were to a very large extent rendered nugatory owing to the presence of so many of the natural enemies of the fish. In America* the same state of things had to be met; and there application bad been' made to Parliament for assistance in the destruction of eels. It was,' as he had suggested, necessary that here some decided steps should be taken, and he had i therefore mentioned the subject. .The only other point of interest was that deer were ! spreading very well. There was a magnificent ! herd of deer on the Malvern hills, in the Timaru country, near Lake Hawea, and in time the deer i .would no doubt prove very attractive to tourists. ! A gentleman had , very , recently secured a magnificent head, which he (fche president) had, in preparation, and this with another which had been got some time before would be shown at the forthcoming exhibition. Some trout would also be prepared for the exhibition, and the council would' also try to arrange for the exhibition of live fish, and would gladly cooperate with the exhibition commissioners so as to produce interesting exhibits. The balance sheet was satisfactory, inasmuch as the balance in hand showed an increase, but it should be remembered that they had plenty of calls upon their funds, and that the hatching of salmon threw a considerable additional expense upon the society. Mr A. C. Begg seconded the motion, and in doing so said that the society had practically solved one of the great problems in connection with the acclimatisation of salmon. They had now procured ova from fish that they had reared from ova sent from Home, and which they had in confinement. This year they expected from 30,000 to 40,000 ova from these salmon. This practically solved the difficulty of procuring ova, and rendered the ultimate solution of the problem of stocking the rivers much more easy. He had no doubt that the scientific world, interested in the salmon question, would look on this as a very great achievement.' "It was,' he understood, a thing that had never been done in any part of the world before, and the fact of the Otago Society having been able to do it would draw attention to it from everywhere, and it would also make them in a short time practically independent of the importation of salmon ova from Great Britain. Mr R. Chisholm said there was a jaart of the report which he would like to refer to. It was one of the most important parts, and referred to the destruction of eels and shags, being as follows :— " We have much to contend with from the number of eels in some of our streams. They are found to be great enemif s to the trout. The matter has received much attention at our hands, and a number of eel traps have been ordered and forwarded to the most likely places where they could be used. We. have been informed that the traps which' were phced in the' Waipahi river and Lee stream were found to answer admirably, so that further steps will be taken next year in the direction of destroying eels." This statement he thought was a per- 1 feet farce. He spoke earnestly in the matter

because the efforts pat forth by the society in tiiis i direction had been, in bis opinion, a Complete ; failure. On. his last visit' to Lee stream he had' seen one of these traps lying high and dry, with a rabbit in it that had apparently been pat there about a month before. The utmost vigilance was neceeary in connection with these traps. If they went to the expense of making and sending, them up to the rivers they should see that they were attended to in some way. He supposed the total result of all the expense and , labour last year was the capture of about one or two dozen eels. Mr G. M. Marshall, who had considerable experience, told, the speaker that the traps the society made were not at all suitable, and he strongly urged the' society to deal with the matter seriously, and try to get rid at all events of some of these natural enemies. He saw by. some articles by Mr Norris, an American expert on fishing matters, that -they had found the greatest difficulty in stocking their rivers there .owing to eels. They had consequently set vigorously to ; work at the construction of weirs at various,. points in the streams, and had succeeded in catching so many eels that the fish were beginning -to increase, and' there was a good prospect of the, streams being stocked as .well as they ever were. There, was no reason why we should not make a similar attempt. He had no hesitation in saying that that portion of the report which spoke of eel traps having been laid with' success had not; been obtained from a .reliable source. The Fisheries Bill mentioned in' the report was another matter which- he .thought the society should set itself seriously to consider, and see that legislation was brought .to bear against another natural enemy, the poacher. . He hoped they, would strongly urge upon' the Government the necessity of stating in the clause regulating fines, the minimum as well as the maximum fine. It was ridiculous merely to say that the fine should not exceed £50,' and perhaps some .magistrates .would let offenders, off with a shilling and costs. They should insist upon a fine of at least £5 being inflicted. MrG. P. Clifford said he supposed he should be in a minority, but on the subject of eels Dr Preard, a practical water farmer, had pointed out that the best eejl rivers in Ireland were also the best salmon rivers, and he (the speaker) doubted whether they were so destructive to fish as was supposed by many here. He proceeded .to argue that eela ran down to the sea to spawn, and were not in the rivers when i the salmon spawned. ' The Chairman remarked that the eels: at | Homeand here were very different fish. After some furthef discussion on this subject, the report and balance sheet were unanimously , adopted. ELECTION OF OFJMCE-BBABEEtf. On proceeding to the election' of officebearers, > Mr Clifford said he wished to protest, as he did last year, against the number elected. The rules said the council should be 18, including president, vice-president, treasurer, &c, and 31 were elected. There was no provision for the election of country members in addition to the bound]. The Chaihman said they were only called committees, and were cot members of the council. Mr Clifford said they came into town and voted at meetings of the council. Mr Wilkib said in four years there had been only two occasions on which country members attended a council meeting. Mr Chisholm said there were ways in which country members made themselves very useful without attending meetings. Mr Clifford repeated hid objection to the rules being broken. He farther objected to the practice of electing gentlemen who were not members of the society. w ■ t< l" '■' Mr Chisholm moved the re-election of Mr Maitland as president, referring to the great interest he had shown in acclimatisation matters. Mr G. M. Thomson seconded the motion, which was carried unanimously, and Mr Maitland briefly returned thanks. - : On the motion of Mr Wilkib, seconded by Mr Stoddabt, Mr A. C. Begg was unanimously elected vice-president, and also acknowledged | the compliment. After considerable discussion the following i gentlemen were elected as the council : Messrs JR. Chisholm, G. M. Thomson, P. C. Neill, R. Campbell, J. Rattray, W. Carlton, F. R. Chapman, J. Edgar, D. Stronach, W. Cunningham Smith, P. F. Sfcoddart, G. M. Marshall, G. P. Clifford, D. Russell, and J. Wilkie. The Chairman said he had to announce with regret that Mr Edgar, who had been their most efficient and hard working secretary for the past year, was unable to accept office again. On the motion of Mr Chisholm, seconded by Mr Aitkbn*, Mr J, Wilkie. was elected secretary for' the ensuing year; Mr Chisholm moved a hearty vote of thanks to the officers for the past year, especially Mr Edgar, the late secretary, Mr Deans, manager, and Ranger Burt. Carried unanimonsly. The following were. added to the list of country members: Messrs Charles Roseveare, A. Nelson, and J. F. Collins, THE OFOHO PEOPEBTT. After some discussion a special meeting of subscribers was fixed for 3 p.m. on June 11, to consider Mr Begg's motion re the sale af the Opoho property.