Art. XXXVIII.—Notes on Fish found in the Piako River.

By Captain G. Mair, N.Z.C.

[Read before the Auckland Institute, 4th August, 1902.]

Wiiile visiting Pokatunawhenua, a native settlement about three miles up the Piako River, in March last, I found a party of natives catching large quantities of different kinds of fish in what they call a tarawa. Some stout manuka poles are put up in the channel where the current takes a straight run. The two sets of poles are from 20 ft. to 25 ft. apart, and as soon as the tide commences to ebb a funnel-shaped net is fastened in the opening, the lower edge being pinned down to the bottom by long poles with forks on them, and the top edge of the net is fastened to a bar tied from one set of stakes to the other. If the tide be favourable, it is necessary to take the fish out every quarter of an hour, and this is done by lifting the long tapering end of the net and emptying the contents into a cance. As soon as the ebb has ceased and the flood tide comes up the not is simply turned inside out, and so the process goes on till sufficient fish are caught to occupy all hands in cleaning and drying, then the net is lifted for several days.

Assisted by a native lad, I twice lifted the net in about three-quarters of an hour, with the following result: 581 eels, from 1 ft. to 4 ft. in length, the largest the size of one's arm; eight dozon flounders, of various sizes; large numbers of aua or kataha (Agonostoma forsteri); about 60 lb. or 70 lb. weight of pilchard or mohimohi (Clupea sagaœ), two varieties; a few snapper, mullet, and kahawai; and hundreds of young red-cod, rarii (Lotella bacchus), and what I believe are the young rock-cod, or kokopu or rawaru (Percis colias). The red-cod were from 3 in. to 4 in. in length, and the rawaru, or, as the natives here call them, “toitoi” or panepane,” from 2 in. to 6 in. long. Very large quantities of a kind of whitebait were also caught at the same time.