Fishing mentioned at Great Barrier Island in 1854.

The New Zealand Fisheries

            We have been instituting diligent inquiries respecting the varieties and character of the fish to be found in our surrounding waters. In this research, we have been greatly indebted to an intelligent and practical friend, through whom we have already received  much valuable information, and have been promised still more. That which we have now to lay before our readers, if it be, as we have no reason to doubt, perfectly correct, may well be regarded  as deeply important intelligence; seeing that it conveys an assurance that herrings and cod, the grand staples of European fish curers, are not the only inhabitants of these seas, but that, in addition to many highly prized fish peculiar to our waters, many of the most choice fish of the northern hemisphere abound.

            “With regard to the New Zealand fisheries,” writes our informant, “it has lately been satisfactorily proved that we have numbers of fish hitherto supposed only to inhabit the northern hemisphere.

            “The first in value is the cod. These are chiefly to be found in deep water; on banks off the coast, and in from forty to seventy fathoms. They are caught with the hook and line.

            “The second in importance is the herring, a shoal of which was recently driven ashore at Mahurangi. They have likewise repeatedly been seen in the neighbourhood of the Great Barrier Island. Herrings are taken with a drift net; the cost of which, in England, would be about £80.

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Source: Lloyds Weekly Newspaper (London, England). Sunday, January 29^th, 1854.