ECONOMY AND PROPORTION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 95, 23 April 1931, Page 6

ECONOMY AND PROPORTION.

There is ample proof in the news from .day to day that to many citizcns national cconomy is something that should affect the other fellow. Last evening the Auckland Acclimatisation Society protested vigorously against the Government's action in diverting societies' funds and curtailing their privileges, and the usual strong representations are to be made in Wellington. The attention of the Society may be drawn to the fact that protests are also being made against the cutting down of hospital grants and the abolition of scholarships, and they may be asked which is the more important —the saving of human life, the encouragement of the brightest children in the community to procccd to secondary schools, or the breeding and preservation of I game in the interests of a small minority. One member said that the Society had produced "a very fine asset" for New Zealand, and another that the proposed treatment of the Societies by the Government would mean "the end of wild life in a very short time." What is this fine asset? It is the declared opinion of an investigator of acclimatisation in New Zealand that there is only one form of life introduced here against which nothing can be said, and that is trout. But the value of trout is probably balanced by the harm done by deer. Would it do the country any harm if the Government's policy brought about "the end of Avild life in a very short time"? If the deer disappeared, the Government would be very pleased. And with the disappearance of imported wild life perhaps native life would have a better chance of survival. No doubt it is irritating to members of Acclimatisation Societies to find their hobby interfered with in this way, but the average New Zea,lander will probably say that there is no activity whose curtailment would cause-him less regret. (