H.—ls.

The fisheries of Canterbury and Otago ports have shown an improvement on the previous year's operations, though prices have remained low except when rough weather brought about a temporary shortage of supplies. In spring and summer the markets were frequently oversupplied, and serious losses to the fishermen would have occurred but for the sales to exporters. The fishermen established in the more remote places on the Otago coast have, generally speaking, had good fishing, but their business is seriously hampered by transport limitations and by difficulties arising from lack of good harbour facilities. One fatality occurred, when a launch was wrecked on the bar at Taieri Mouth in July. A general review of the conditions reveals how the financial stringency of the times has had its effect on the fishing methods employed. The personnel of the industry contains a large proportion of recruits who followed other occupations prior to the slump. These are for the most part dinghy or shore fishermen who fish very intermittently and whose catches, being hawked locally, are not usually included in our returns. A diminution in the employment of fishing-vessels of the highest class as regards capital value as well as fishing-power and working-expenses is shown in the further decrease in the operations of deep-sea trawlers, apparently brought about by the fall in prices. In 1927 six steam-trawlers of the North Sea type were in practically continuous commission. This year, though three vessels of this type were based on Auckland, it was only for a very short period that as many as two were in operation at the same time ; and only one steam-trawler worked from Wellington. Other steamers engaged in trawling from such ports as Napier, Lyttelton, and Port Chalmers are small converted vessels originally built for other work and not to be classed as deep-sea trawlers according to the standards of the Northern Hemisphere. Considering that the large trawlers kept several hands in employment and consumed coal produced by New Zealand labour, and, moreover, kept the markets supplied with fairly uniform amounts of mixed fish, it is a matter for regret that their activity has shown a decline. On the other hand their fishing-power had certainly been such that with a limited area of ground available for exploitation there was some danger of depletion from overfishing. Visits of both steam-trawlers and Danish-seiners to inshore grounds fished by local line fishermen have given rise to complaints and protests from various districts. The difficulty is that practically all the best fishing-grounds are comparatively close to the land and must be exploited by the more intensive methods if supplies of fish to the larger ports are to be maintained. There is, moreover, the additional problem of keeping a proper surveillance over " prohibited " areas for which our fisheries protection organization is already inadequate and indeed in most districts non-existent. While steam-trawling has declined, Danish-seining has increased and developed. In the early days small motor-launches of about 35 ft. in length were generally employed for this fishing. In the last year or two several bigger and more seaworthy vessels have been specially built, with a wider field of operation and the ability to work in weather which was formerly regarded as impossible. Moreover the installation of Diesel engines in place of the benzine or petrol consumers of a few years ago has effected marked economy in propulsion and has also extended their range. Some trawling and line-fishing vessels have also added to their efficiency and economy by the same change. Generally speaking, the Danish-seiners are decidedly the most efficient and productive of all fishing-vessels in the Dominion. In the Auckland vicinity considerable restrictions have been imposed on their operations by closing certain areas to this method of fishing, and there is at least ground for believing that it may be advisable to limit their operations in inshore waters off other parts of the open coast. Owing to the limited market there has been a considerable amount of voluntary restriction of fishing intensity in the last two years. At the same time, however, the low price of fish or increased scarcity has induced more of "the most enterprising fishermen to take up this method of fishing. Unfortunately, a comprehensive appreciation of the situation has been prevented by the lack of statistical information to which reference has already been made. Snapper and flounder on the Auckland fishing-grounds and flounders and other flatfish on the Nelson and Canterbury fishing-grounds are the kinds most sought after and most affected by this method of fishing. Hapuku or groper fishing in Cook Strait and off the Canterbury and Otago coasts is another special fishery to which more intensive methods are being increasingly applied. This kind of fish is becoming more and more difficult to catch. Formerly the market requirements could be supplied by hand-line fishing, but nowadays the majority of groper are taken by long lines. Each line carries several hooks, usually on wire snoods, a sinker being attached to the further end of the line and a buoy to the nearer end. Several of these lines may be fished by a single boat, and in fishing they are allowed to drift with the tide. Experience has shown that groper grounds which are fished in this way do not maintain their original productiveness for very long. An opinion very generally held by fishermen is that owing to the frequent loss of lines by this method of fishing —they sometimes drift on to foul ground and cannot be recovered—the groper are caused to leave the locality, being scared away either by the presence of dead fish on the lost lines or by the predatory fish such as sharks and blind-eels, which are thus attracted to the spot. This is a purely hypothetical explanation. In my opinion the more probable explanation is that the local depletion is largely a matter of the abstraction of larger numbers of the fish population by the intensified efficiency of the fishing operations. Even hand-line fishing, if carried 011 continuously, can have a marked effect in reducing the stock of fish, as is indicated, for instance, by the present condition of most of the blue-cod grounds in the Cook Strait region. It must, however, be recognized that an abundance of a certain species of fish may be due to especially successful natural reproduction or an abnormally high degree of survival of progeny, and conversely its impoverishment may be due to abnormal mortality of progeny. The occurrence of good spawning years and bad spawning years is well known, and the elucidation of the factors effecting such variation in the ultimate results of the natural reproduction of fishes have been

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