4

H.—ll

By way of putting the matter fully before you, I may state that in answer to my letter of 11th April, to the Hon. S. F. Baird, that gentleman arranged to send 200,000 ova for the Auckland Acclimatisation Society, and in answer to a subsequent request of mine, a further shipment of 50,000 for the Canterbury Society, and 50,000 for the Victorian Society. On receiving your letter of the 11th October, asking me to receive and provide for the safe distribution of the 500,000 salmon ova the New Zealand Government were expecting to arrive by steamer on November 3rd, or at latest by next mail steamer, and knowing that the ova boxes, are shipped from their crates in San Francisco so that they may be placed in the steamer's ice-house I immediately set to work to provide a double chest (the interspace packed with sawdust) for each ova box expected (16 in number), with the necessary ice boxes for a reserve of ice. I had provided also 2 tons of ice as a first instalment if the whole 800,000 ova arrived. These preparations were fully completed on November 2nd, when the mail steamer arrived at Auckland. On her arrival I found that 11 boxes only had arrived, consigned on ship's manifest to Auckland Acclimatisation Society. I could learn nothing of any for the New Zealand Government. I had a staff of 8 men on the wharf, but the difficulty of getting the ova boxes out of the ice-house, where they lay imbedded in tons of ice, was so great, that I had not completed the packing of the 11 boxes till 5 o'clock on the morning of the 3rd November, though I and my men had been hard at work all through the night. Not wishing to disappoint the more suitable localities in the South, I arranged to ship some of the Auckland ova to Christchurch [in addition to their own parcel], to Dunedin, to Invercargill, and Napier —to be returned to us on receipt by Government of the ova ordered by them. I therefore placed on board the Wanaka, s.s., before 7 o'clock a.m., November 3rd, 4 boxes with reserves of ice for the three places first named, intending to ship to Napier by the Rotorua, on the 6th. When on my return from Onehunga, the Secretary of our Society, having obtained his advices, waited upon me with a letter from Messrs. Cross <fe Co., our San Francisco agents, advising shipping 11 boxes salmon ova for the Auckland Acclimatization Society, and enclosing press copy of a letter from Professor Baird's deputy at Redding, in which there fortunately happened to be a copy of the names of places to which the 10 boxes were to be sent —identical with Dr. Hector's list of 28th July, 1877—embodied in the Parliamentary papers you sent to me (with one for the Victorian Society). I then found that for some reasen or other the United States Fish Commissioners had not forwarded the Auckland and Canterbury orders. lat once telegraphed Captain McGillivray, of the Wanaki, s.s., to deliver the two boxes marked " Christchurch," to Nelson and Greymouth. On the 6th I despatched per Rotorua :— 1 box to Napier 1 ~ Wellington ( ~,.,, *. , i m. ■1 ? l / With 7 ice boxes in reserve. 1 ~ (Jnristcnurch [ 1 „ Invercargill J 4 Per Wanaka— 1 box to Nelson (as above) 1 ~ Greymouth do ( ttt-xi x v. • • -n j- / With 5 boxes ice in reserve. I ~ Dunedin [ 1 „ Invercargill ) 8 leaving for Auckland & and for Victoria Society (not included in Government order. Having made every arrangement at great expense and much personal inconvenience for the safe reception and proper dispersion of the full quantity of 800,000 ova, I must confess to a little disappointment at being therefore rendered unable to stock the Auckland rivers to the number and extent I had intended. Since the arrival of the mail steamer on November 2nd, I have been actively engaged in carrying out the work you intrusted to me—of packing and transhipping the ova to Southern ports —and in placing the Auckland portions in the King country to the south, and in the Wairoa river and its tributaries to the north. From telegrams I have received, I am pleased to think that the work, arduous though it has been, has not been in vain. Pray pardou the length of this letter as I could not permit any misapprhension as to the proper disposal of the ova to exist in your mind, without endeavouring to remove it. I have, &c, G. S. Cooper, Esq., J. C. Firth, Under-Secretary, Wellington. President of the Auckland Acclimatisation Society.

No. 16. Mr. J. C. Firth to the Under Secretary. Sik,— Auckland, 21st January, 1878. I beg to inform you that I have successfully deposited the 100,000 salmon ova placed at the disposal of the Auckland Acclimatisation Society, as follows:— 40,000 in the Puniu river, in the King Country—the chief Rewi Maniapoto co-operating with me and assisting me. 8,000 in the River Thames. 7,000 in a small stream near the chief Tirarau's settlement, Wairoa North. 7,000 in the Mangakahia river, near the Hikurangi stream. 36,000 in the Mangakahia river, near Te Wero's settlement.