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No. 10. The Ministeb having Charge of the Mabine Depaetment to the Agent-Geneeal, London. Sib,— Marine Department, Wellington, 26th August, 1886. Adverting to the shipment of salmon-ova received by the " lonic," I have the honour to forward for your information extracts from a letter received from Mr. S. C. Farr, the honorary secretary of the North Canterbury Acclimatization Society, on the subject of the size of the ova. I forward these extracts without comment, as I am unable to form an opinion as to whether Mr. Farr's statements are correct or not. I have, &c. m , . _ ' W. J. M. Labnach. Ihe Agent-General for New Zealand, 7, Westminster Chambers, London, S.W.

Enclosure. Exteacts from Letter, dated the 16th August, 1886, from the Honorary Seceetaey, North Canterbury Acclimatization Society, to the Seceetaey, Marine Department. .... From the first they have been small and sickly, a fact proving that they were taken from very young fish, which is a great mistake ; especially so to send a long voyage subject to great variations of temperature. . . . The eggs received ex " lonic " measured twenty-five to a square inch, while those ex " Kaikoura " were sixteen to the square inch. The latter were strong from the time they were hatched out until they were put into our rivers, and the smallest fish they were taken from weighed over 161b., smaller fish being refused. .

No. 11. Telegeam to Agent-Geneeal, London, dated the 17th December, 1887. Send salmon-ova Dunedin.

No. 12 Telegeam from the Agent-Geneeal, London, dated the 18th December, 1886. Salmon-ova : Yours yesterday. Impossible provide beforehand that times netting rivers coincide steamers going particular port. Unluckily " Tainui" and " Kaikoura " both make Auckland first 200,000 salmon-ova, Ehine, also 100,000 trout. "Tainui;" 200,000 salmon-ova, "Kaikoura;" remainder to Port Chalmers, " Doric." Please prepare.

No. 13. Telegeam from Agent-Geneeal, London, dated the 24th December, 1886. Salmon-ova: First shipment " Kaikoura."

No. 14. The Agent-Geneeal to the. Hon. the Minister of Marine. S IB > — 7, Westminster Chambers, London, S.W., 6th November, 1886 I have received your letters of the 26th August, No. 75/49, and 9th September, No 221/49 relating to the ova sent out by the " lonic," and now beg leave to notice a few of the points which may perhaps be worth keeping in mind. Adverting, in the first place, to Mr. Farr's statement of the 16th August as to the size of the ova he took out, Sir Jam.es Maitland tells me that last season's eggs from the Tay were generally small compared to others, though larger than the Tweed ova of the year before. Sir James has kept the measures in which the "lonic" eggs were counted, and can therefore tell exactly how many went to the square inch; but, as Mr. Farr says that his eggs measured _sin. we should like to know the number and capacity of the jars in which he carried them from the Tweed to Linlithgow because such a size gives less than 18,000 to the gallon, whereas 25,000 may be taken as the usual number. With regard to sending an expert Home to get ova, I should, personally, be very glad of it, for I should be saved a large correspondence and a great deal of work; but, all the same, I must repeat what I said a year ago, that it would be a mere waste of money to send any one here to do what is done every day by people of the highest skill and experience, and with the most perfect appliances m the world. lam not supposing that Mr. Farr, and the other gentlemen who advocate sending some one Home, really mean to say anything as foolish as that a colonial expert knows better how to take ova than the Superintendent of the Scotch Fishery Boards, or better how to treat them afterwards than Sir James Maitland. Howietoun Fishery is famous, as you know, not only for rearing Salmonidas on a greater scale and a more thorough system than at any other establishment of the kind in Europe but for having found-out many things that used to be mysteries, and for having brought together knowledge of incalculable value, for practical no less than for scientific purposes. Let me take one or two points in the Waitaki Society's letter. Eeferring to Mr. Farr's statement that not 10 per cent, of ova sent out to Canterbury had been impregnated, the President and Secretary say that "if this is the case with ova supplied by fishery establishments having such perfect appliances, and charging on an average £1 per thousand for 10-per-cent. impregnated