ACCLIMATISATION.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XIV, Issue 2961, 1 May 1893, Page 2

ACCLIMATISATION.

I'HE WELLINGTON SOCIETY.

Xt the annual meeting of the Wellington Acclimatisation Society the balance sheet showed thac the reaeipts, including £114 brought forward, were £1025, the expenditure was £942, leaving a credit balance of £83. The annual report states thac red deer are spreading north owing to being bo much shot at by rabbit ere and others; thatl opossums have been purchased and liberated on the ranges behind Paraparamu on the Wellington and Manawatu company'sline'; that during the year English pheasants, Teneriffo partridges, and grouse and Virginian quail have been purchased and liberated ; that the hatching of pheasant eggs has been unsuccessful owing to a severe epidemic among the birds of ophthalmia and gapes ; and that why partridges do not thrive in this colony is a mystery, but the council are confident that there are i.ther drawbacks in operation against the acclimatisation of these birds. Fibh culture has been most successful, and eyclusiveoffishandovadHtributed to the Hutt and locally they sent 34,000 eyed ova to the Department of Fiaheiies in New South Wales, 44,000 ova to Hawke's Bay, 20,000 to Taupo, 15,000 ova were sent to Poverty Bay and 20,000 to Greymouth, 10,000 fry to Marlborouejh, ani 987 yearlings to Wanganui, 41,000 fry to Taianaki and 20,500 fry to Hawera; making a total output of 74,350/ Fontinilis, 81,900 Loch Leven, 1000 burn trout, and 648,327 brown trout, or a grand total I'of 805,577 fish and ova distributed for the past year. The council are endeavoring through the Chief Inspector of Fisheries in New South Wales, to obtain a supply of prawns for Wellington harbor. The report concludes, '' Acclimatisation is potent for good or ill, and it behoves us all to weigh carefully the probable result of any steps taken and not rashly to import to our shores any mischievous kind of lite that may upset the balance of nature, and above all to try to preserve as far as possible the few remaining indigenous birds, once the pride of New Zealand."