Mr A. M. Johnson and the introduction of freshwater fish

Mr Johnson, the curator of the Canterbury Acclimatisation Society from 1864 to 1875, claimed to have introduced many of the freshwater fish species in New Zealand. Unfortunately he and Mr Farr, the Secretary of the Society from 1870, did not get on very well at all, which has helped to make the records of that time somewhat unreliable.

The story of the first three brown trout in New Zealand—the survivors of the 800 brown trout ova sent from Tasmania in 1867, which were so dramatically flooded out and then a pair recaptured—has accordingly been claimed by some authorities to be untrue. George Ferris, in his book Fly Fishing in New Zealand reports that the 1868 Otago consignment, brought in by Mr Clifford, was the first successful introduction of brown trout. The number of ova in Mr Clifford's shipment was also 800, a circumstance that makes it even more difficult to find out the true facts. At any rate, it can safely be assumed that brown trout were definitely acclimatised in New Zealand waters from 1868.

Mr Johnson did attempt to bring a large variety of fish with him when he migrated to New Zealand from England in 1864, and made many assertions based on this venture. He, and the fish, were carried on the British Empire , but according to G. M. Thomson, the fish died when a careless deckhand dropped a lump of white-lead putty into the tank.

Johnson's shipment included 600 young Atlantic salmon fish, which were fed on snails and water weeds. There were also a number of char, though what sort, he neglected to say. (He did admit that he lost 'nearly all' of these through lead poisoning.) He also claimed that he brought out the first American brook trout, carp, goldfish, Japanese minnows, gudgeon, barbel, bleak, tench, rudd, dace, roach, common minnow and perch. Thomson states that most, if not all, of these fish died on the voyage.

Whatever the facts,.it is evident that Mr Johnson was a dedicated and talented caretaker of fish. When he retired from his position of curator of the Canterbury Society in 1875, he established his own private fish farm and aquarium, and developed a very successful breeding stock from the many types of fish eggs that he imported into New Zealand on his own account.