THE ATLANTIC SALMON

Southland Times, Issue 19123, 15 December 1923, Page 4

THE ATLANTIC SALMON

When Hon. G. J. Anderson launched into a reply to a Southland deputation which sought a change in the policy dictated by Mr Ayson, he said rather more on the subject than was anticipated and rather less than was hoped, but he was careful to make it clear that in the meantime the Department’s campaign is to stock the Wanganui intensively, which means, of course, that the Waiau must be subjected to a severe strain. Mr Anderson says that he is accepting the advice of Mr Ayson in these matters, so that the case he put before the deputation may be taken as that of the Department’s expert. The Minister put to one side the suggestion that the stocking of the Wanganui was to continue over a number of years, and substituted a statement that stocking would go on until it was seen that the Atlantic salmon was established in the river, which is gather more indefinite than the reference made by Mr Anderson some time ago. It must not be thought that the Minister’s declaration on this point means that only one more lot of ova is to go into the Wanganui, because it is extremely unlikely that anyone will be able to say whether or not the salmon is established in one or even two years. The period required will probably be much longer, and if that is so the eight years previously mentioned might prove to be an accurate forecast. Mr Anderson was hardly fair to the Southland Society when he declared that its aim was to handle all the Atlantic ova itself, because the proposition now before the Minister is entirely different. It involves something for which the Department does not seem to have made provision—the protection of the Waiau system. Natural regeneration is so wasteful that it cannot be a wise course at this stage to attack the Waiau in the interests of Wanganui without the use of artificial regeneration for the Waiau system itself. If Mr Ayson’s plan means that the stripping of the Waiau is to be carried up to the limit of safety, something may be said for the Department’s refusal to allow the Southland Acclimatisation Society to take ova from streams other than those in which the Department is operating, but if that limit is attained something should be done for the protection of the Waiau system. If the Waiau is not menaced by the Department’s stripping, there can be no reasonable objection to operations by the society to secure ova for Southland rivers. Mr Anderson probably realises that Southlanders are nervous because the declared policy up to his recent statement at Tapanui did not give any hope of Southland rivers being treated until after the expiry of a number of years, when the campaign in the Wanganui would be concluded We should be grateful that no suggestion for canneries in the Waiau system has come forward, and that the quinnat so far has 'not invaded our territory; but that does not get over the fact that there is yet no certainty that Southland rivers will be assisted by the artificial regeneration of Atlantic salmon until some years have elapsed.