And whereas the Provincial Council of the Province of Otago has recommended the Superintendent of the said province to set apart the lands hereinafter specified for alienation on deferred payments.

Now therefore I, James Macandrew, Superintendent of the Province of Otago, by and with the advice and consent of the Provincial Council as aforesaid, do hereby, by virtue and in exercise of the powers conferred upon me by “The Otago Waste Lands Act, 1872,” and of every or any power in this behalf enabling me, proclaim, declare, and set apart all those sections numbered respectively 2, 4, 7, 10, and 13, block V., and 2, 4, 13, 14, 16, and 18, block VI., Chatton Survey District, will be open on Monday, the 27th day of June, 1876, for application for license or lease on deferred payment, as provided in the “Otago Waste Lands Act, 1872.”

Given under my hand, and issued under the public seal of the Province of Otago this 23d day of May, 1876.

J. MACANDREW,
Superintendent of Otago.

(NOTICE.—Whereas it is intended to stop up the Road which is described in the Schedule hereunder written, and is delineated on the map or plan mentioned and referred to in the “Taieri District Roads Lands Ordinance, 1864,” Session XIX., copy of which map or plan so far as it relates to the particular road intended to be stopped up in the Road District specified in the Schedule was deposited at the public School mentioned immediately after the description of the respective road intended to be stopped up in the North Taieri Road District: Now therefore I, James Macandrew, Superintendent of the Province of Otago, by virtue and in exercise of the powers vested in me in that behalf by the “Taieri District Roads Lands Ordinance, 1864,” Session No. XIX., do hereby give notice that all persons objecting to the stopping up of that road are required to set forth a statement in writing of any well-grounded objections they may have to the stopping up of that road, and to leave such statement addressed to me at my office, in Dunedin, within sixty days from the first publication hereof, otherwise such objections will not be considered by me.

SCHEDULE.

NORTH TAIERI ROADS DISTRICT.

Thirty-five (35) chains in length, sixty (60) links wide from north-east angle of section number 32, irregular block, Taieri to district road, on the south side of Blocks II. and III., Taieri; boundaries west by Section 24, east by Section 25, irregular block, Taieri.

Plan to be seen at the School-house, North Taieri.

Dated at Dunedin this 16th day of May, 1876.

J. MACANDREW,
Superintendent of the Province of Otago.

THE following Report and Statement of Accounts are published for general information:—

REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES UNDER THE SOUTHLAND ACCLIMATISATION GRANT ACT.

The fund arising from the disposal of the two thousand acres given to the Southland Acclimatisation Society under the “Grant Act, 1869” having now been expended, this trust terminates, and the Trustees think it is fitting that they should briefly report what has been done under the operation of the grant in the way of fish culture.

The reports of the Curator, Mr. Howard, in May and July, 1875 (printed in Journals, Legislative Council, 1875), give, in general terms, much of the information which the Trustees desire to convey here.

Before the Grant Act passed in 1869 the Southland Acclimatisation Society had formed breeding ponds near Wallacetown, in which brown trout were successfully reared from ova obtained from Tasmania, and subsequently distributed, and the Trustees take this opportunity to express their appreciation of the liberality with which the sister colony of Tasmania has on various occasions given ova, both of brown and of sea trout, to acclimatisation societies in New Zealand.

In view of a shipment of salmon ova from the United Kingdom in 1869 the hatching accommodation had to be greatly enlarged, and subsequent additions became necessary, and were made from time to time, until in 1875 the area was capacious enough to hatch 300,000 ova.

The first large shipment of salmon ova in which Southland participated came to Port Chalmers in April, 1869, in the Mindora. The ova were distributed to Canterbury (7,000), Otago (100,000), and Southland (7,000), but the Mindora was 133 days on her voyage, and the ova were all dead.

In 1871 the Southland Society obtained a small quantity of salmon ova (about 3,000) from Mr. Buckland, packed in bottles surrounded with sawdust, sent to Melbourne by a sailing vessel. They were delayed in transit to Southland, and none were hatched out.

In 1873 the Oberon brought to Port Chalmers 120,000 salmon ova, about 25,000 of which were forwarded to Canterbury, the rest to Southland. She sailed on the 25th January, 1873, and the ova reached the Southland ponds on the 4th May—the time (from packing the ova ?) being reckoned by Mr. Howard at 114 days—a period which exceeded the maximum time heretofore considered compatible with continued vitality. About 10,000 ova were placed in the hatching boxes, the others, about 85,000, were useless from one cause or another. About 300 fry were hatched. Most of them died afterwards, and ultimately only 96 of these salmon fry remained, and were removed at the age of one year to a pond near Aparima River, into which it was intended to allow them to go when the proper time had arrived. The fry continued for some time in this pond and throve well. The Curator reported that in April, 1875, they were strong and healthy; nearly all of those he saw were about the same size—namely, seven inches—and that “the parr marks and shots along the upper side were getting very indistinct,” none of them having shown smolt scales during the preceding season. In June, 1875, the Aparima overflowed its banks, communicated with the pond, and the salmon were carried into the river.

It was unfortunate that the flood in the river should have released the fish from the pond, and so withdrawn them from observation just before the time when their progress would have deserved to be, and been, watched with the greatest interest. If these ova had been hatched at Stormontfield one-half of the fry would, according to the opinion of some leading fishculturists, assume the silvery scales of the smolt, and go to sea in May, 1875, the other half in May, 1876. In the case of these fry the period of hatching had been protracted. It is not unlikely that the time for assuming the smolt scales and going to sea would also be delayed, and actually occur, as Mr. Buckland has conjectured, at a season corresponding here to the month of May in Britain. We have lost the opportunity of watching the process on this occasion.

In 1875 the Timaru brought to the Bluff 300,000 salmon ova after a passage of 105 days. About 25,000 of the ova were taken to Canterbury. No fish were hatched out of the whole number.