Interesting to Sportsmen.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 419, 20 February 1890, Page 2

Interesting to Sportsmen.

|TO THS XDITOh.] Sis,—As a member ot our local Aaolimilisation Society, I think it possible that some of my brother members might like to read a short account of a visit I reoently paid to tha Auokland Domain fish ponds, where trout, “ speckled beauties,” are to be teen in almost all ctnges of existence, I hud some difficulty in discovering t?is precise locality of the ponds, ss they occupy vary little space, and apparently are not intended to court attention from visitors, although nothing could exceed the kindness ot the curator, when I eventually (by ihe aid of a small boy) found him, and introduced myself to him, Old Aucklanders will understand me, when I say that the “ trouterios ” are on the side ot the hill running down to the railway line, opposite about the centre ot Parnell, and are supplied by water from the old pond on the opposite side of the domain, which twenty years ago formed tbe only and whole system of water supply which Auckland could boast of. The hatching bouse, which is the first place to be visited, consists of a small building erected into the side of the hill, containing about six long boxes, set one over the other in a frame. Water is laid on from above, and runs continually over the whole series. Some six inches from the top of the boxes, parallel to the run of ths water, a frame » fitted will; glass tubes, laid just close enough together to carry the ovro, without their slipping through, As each ova hatches, tbe little fish slips through between the tubes into the box, when they are collected each day by the curator and removed to another pond. Here they |are fed on liver chopped very fine, and the growth they make under these conditions is quite phenomenal. Some of the statistics recorded iu tha books ot the place, ore really more than astonishing, Tbe curator vouches for tbe truth ot the astounding faot, that one English Wandle brown trout reached the weight ot over eight pounds in twenty months frorj) its having been hatched. As this fish grow they are drafted from pond to pond, in proportion to their size, until they arc sent away to stock other watsra. The curator informs me that he has failed in obtaining ovi» from their own female fiah (come of which are very large, and apparently very tame) at least to any appreciable extent, All tbe ova they hatch comes from the South or California; and on my informing bin) ot the faot that ot the last consignment of young trout our local society imported here some of the boxes only oonta'ned dead fish, be eg. pressed surprise that we had received ene alive at all. Ha says the change to a warmer climate together with the time taken by the journey seams fatal to them, so much so that out of many shipments from Canterbury and Dunedin, I think, they have never arrived alive in Auckland. They have therefore now taken to hatching thair own entirely, and with the best results, I asked the curator it they would aell any of their fish, but he assured me that they are all ordered, and chiefly by the Government, for a long time to oodp. • Hoping this letter may be interesting fo some of your readers,—l am, dte,, BpMMtUtv