Melbourne botan. & zoolog. Garden
7 Dec. 1861.
Sir
In accordance with the request conveyed in your memorandum, dated 3 December 1861,1 I have the honor to inform you, that as yet only one attempt has been carried out for conveying Salmon ova to the waters of Victoria, but that at present again active engagements are progressing for the purpose of introducing the ova or fry of Salmons to Tasmania, the present attempt being supported by a subsidy of £500.- .- from the Victorian Government.
The enterprise for this purpose undertaken last year under the direction of Messrs. Wilson & Youl was not attended with success, altho' it was sufficiently proved by this experiment, that under ordinary circumstances and under the provision of a copious supply of ice for the purpose of maintaining for the small artificial salmon beds throughout the voyage a constant supply of cool pure and limpid water, no manifest obstacle seems to exist to convey, provided they are carefully superintended, Salmon to these southern shores, the ova having retained on board of the "Curling" vitality for 60 days, when the supply of ice was exhausted.
About the middle of last year, when the consignment of ova was shipped pr "Curling", an account of the construction of the apparatus employed, appeared in several of the British periodicals and afterwards in some of the colonial periodicals, to which readily may be referred for information. This apparatus being seemingly well adopted2 for the purpose, may be deserving of the attention of those Gentlemen, who desire to introduce Salmon to the rivers of the southern ocean.
The enterprise at present under progress, will be carried out under the superintendence of Mr. W. Ramsbottom jun, son of the celebrated Salmon-propagator of Britain, from whom probably much valuable information and aid may be obtained by the New Zealand Society. The impregnated ova will be selected late in January or in the commencement of February next, so as to secure their arrival in Tasmania during the cooler season of the year. The Tasmanian Committee has made very efficient preparations for locating and protecting the expected ova, a matter on which the final success of the enterprise will as much depend as on the safe transmission of the ova or fry. I need scarcely add, that I shall consider it a duty to convey to the New Zealand Society the full information I possess on any special question in reference to so desirable an object, as that contemplated to naturalize the Salmon in New Zealand.
I have the honor to be
Sir,
your most obedient and humble Servant
Ferd. Mueller.
The Honorable the Chief Secretary
&c &c &c3
On 7 October 1861, J. Menzies, Superintendant of the newly formed Southland Provincial Council, NZ, wrote to Victoria's Chief Secretary: 'I have the honor to request, that you will furnish this Government with some information on the subject of the attempts which have been made to introduce salmon into the rivers of Victoria. The Goverment of Southland is desirous of aiding the attempts of private individuals in the province, who have associated with the view of introducing salmon &c; but before taking any action in the matter, it is desirous of obtaining authentic information with respect to the former attempts, which have been made to introduce salmon, and the reasons which led to their want of success' (U61/9263, unit 868, VPRS 1189, Public Record Office, Victoria). The Under Secretary, J. Moore, asked M on 3 December if he would 'be good enough to prepare a memorandum for transmissn to the Superintendt. of the Province of Southland'.
adapted?
Moore sent M's letter to Menzies. who wrote again to the Chief Secretary on 3 January 1862: 'I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of 16th ulto Enclosing a copy of a report from Dr Mueller relative to the attempts made to introduce salmon and to express to you the thanks of this Government for your attention' (W62/434, unit 868, VPRS 1189, Public Record Office, Victoria).
MS written by Ernst Heyne and signed by M.
Please cite as “FVM-61-12-07,” in Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, edited by R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora†, J.H. Voigt† and Monika Wells accessed on