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season. Salmon ova can now be shipped in England in one of these steamers at about £4 per thou^ sand delivered on board, with a guarantee that 80 per cent, are vitalized. The cost of bringing them from Melbourne would consist chiefly of the expenses of the person sent for them, and that would be avoided if the proposed line of steamers from London to New Zealand should be established. After the salmon had begun to breed in our rivers the necessity for importing ova would cease; but in order to stock other rivers in the colony it would be advisable, if not necessary, to establish breeding-ponds, and continue to breed from ova of the fish which had been naturalized. The cost of building and forming breeding-houses and ponds should not exceed £100 or £500; and thereafter the chief expense of such a permanent establishment would be the salary of the Curator. The advantages of artificial fish-breeding and the necessity for continuing it permanently in order to maintain a full supply of mature fish are generally recognized in Europe and America. Sir Humphrey Davy tells us that out of 17,000 salmon ova only 800 came to maturity as salmon—that is, about 5 per cent, of the ova. We are better informed on the subject now. In 1852 Mr. Buist and Mr. Ashworth say that, under these circumstances, about 1 in 1,000 come to maturity as adult fish; and in 18G1 the same gentlemen say "that the percentage of success should be estimated at 1 in 8,000" —an opinion in which another authority, Mr. Fennell, concurs. Whereas the percentage of success at the Stormont Field Ponds in 1853 was 90 per cent., according to Mr. Buist. The Storinont Field Ponds were established in that year beside the Tay, and placed under the charge of Mr. Buist. Writing in 1866, he says, "from the experience of upwards of fifty-five years on the Tay and several other rivers, I would strongly recommend to all proprietors of salmon fisheries to follow the example now set by the Tay proprietors in regard to pisciculture, the outlay being trivial, and the benefits that may ultimately accrue being very great. In proof of the correctness of these views Mr. Buist gives the following as the increase of the rental of the Tay since 1853 : 1854, £9,269 6s. 5d.; 1855, £9,977 13s. sd. ; 1856, £10,199 10s. 4d.; 1857, £10,772 (k 5d.; 1858, £11,487 2s. 5d.; 1859, £12,834 145.; 1860, £13,827 10s. 7d.; 1861, £14,109 15s. 7d. ; 1862, £14,050 125.; 1863, £14,232 10s. 6d.; 1864, £16,742 ss. 2d.; 1865, £17,618 os. 7d. ; and the rental in 1877 was £20,000, as Mr. Young, the Commissioner of Scottish Fisheries, states in 1877. The same writer states that Mr. Ashworth, of the Q-alway fisheries, by removing obstructions to fish ascending, lengthening the dose-time, and by artificial propagation, increased the rental of his fishery tenfold in as many years. The following will give an idea of the increase of the number of salmon taken: In 1853, 1,601; in 1855, 5,540; in 1858, 9,039; in 1861, 11,051 ; in 1864, 20,512. Artificial fish-breeding is carried on in France, and also, but on a much larger scale, in America. The report of the Californian Fish Commissioners, republished in the New Zealand Appendix to Journals of the House of Representatives, H.-11, 1878, shows what is being done in that State, and it appears that in many, if not in most, of the States of the Union artificial fish-breeding is carried on in friendly rivalry, and by the aid of votes of public money. Mr. Livingston, United States Assistant Commissioner of fisheries, writing on 11th March, 1880, in "Forest and Stream," with reference to a dam maintained from July to September on the McCloud Eiver by the United States Agent, explains that it is constructed to arrest gravid fish ascending ihe river, aud goes on to say, "Nearly all are caught, and the spawn is saved and artificially hatched; every year 2,000,000 young salmon are returned to the tributaries of the Sacramento; this number is probably fifty times as great as the number of young fish that would be produced naturally by the salmon themselves that are stopped at the dam, and twice as great as the number that would be produced by all the parent salmon in the river." In Canada the Government has seven fish-breeding places established; and the report of the Canadian Fisheries Commissioner for 1877 states that in the spring of that year there were distributed from these places —of fry of Salmo solar, 5,451,000; Californian salmon, 7,000 ; whitefish, 7,000,000; and in the autumn of the same year they laid down in their breeding-boxes—ova of Salmo solar, 6,004,000; Quinnat, 40,000 ; whitefish, 23,500,000. Thus it appears that in America, where the rivers until of late teemed with fish, the continued over-fishing leads \o the apprehension, if not of their extermination, at all events of the working-out of the large export trade in salmon, unless steps are taken for their protection, and for their multiplication by artificial propagation. Even on the Frffeer Bi ver the fish are decreasing in number so quickly that the residents there urge the Canadian Grovernment to establish a fish-breeding place in that locality. Other illustrations might bo quoted from writers on the subject to show that, by artificial propagation, the supply can be maintained to meet the ever-increasing demand for a favourite article of food. And the high importance to the colony of establishing such a productive industry will be apparent on considering the value of the annual production in countries where the salmon abounds; and, as regards the United Kingdom, it has a special value beyond this in the occupation and training it affords to a large number of hardy fishermen. In his report on English salmon fisheries for 1876, Mr. Buckland gives a return of the salmon sold in Billingsgate, from all quarters, from ISOS to 1875. Ho says, t; Taking the year 1874 for example, in it 32,180 boxes of 112 Ib. each were sent from Scotland. Reckoning the value at £10 a box gives a sum of £321,800 as the money-value of the Scottish salmon sent to the London market alone in a single year; aud, assuming 121b. as the average weight of a fish, we get the number of 300,346 salmon." Mr. Young, the Commissioner of Scottish Fisheries, says, "In. a letter from Mr. Caird, Chief Commissioner of British Fisheries in 1868, published in Mr. Ashworth's ' Salmon Fisheries of England,' he estimates the annual value of the river fisheries in England at £30,000 ;in Ireland, £330,000; in Scotland, £200,000: £500,000." " Whereas," says Mr. Young, in " Salmon Fisheries," "taking the value in the last reports of the English and Irish Inspectors, aud adding the Yevy moderate estimate I have made for Scotland, we find—England, £100,000 ; Ireland, £400,000 ; Scotland, £250,000: total annual value, £750,000." Mr. Young then gives a table of the number, weight, and value of the boxes of salmon sent to Billingsgate Market from 1834 to 1875, both inclusive. From this table, which gives the information in detail, it appears that the supply has fluctuated very much in these years,