ACCLIMATISATION SOCIETY.

Press, Volume XLVI, Issue 7258, 18 January 1889, Page 3

ACCLIMATISATION SOCIETY.

A special general meeting of the Acclimatisation Society of Canterbury was held at the Commercial Hotel at 4.30 p.m. yesterday, to consider the financial position of the Society. There were present —The Hon. J. T. Peacock (in the chair), and Messrs W. H. Spackman, J. C. Boys, H. B. Webb, S. C. Farr (Hon. Secretary), and several anglers. Apologies for absence were received and accepted from Messrs P. Cunningham, A. Carrick, and Fergusson. In reply to Mr Boys, the Hon. Secbbtaby said the approximate receipts for 1889 were :—-Licenses to kill game, £50; licenses to fish, £220; sale of fish, £100: subscriptions, £44 ; recoupment of expenses with fleh, £20; amount now due for fish, £32 13s; total, £422 13s. Expenditure—Liabilities, £207 2s sd; wages, £296 ; special labor at ponds, £7 4s; food for fish, birds, and animals, £15 12s; printing, &c, £30; postage and telegrams, £3; travelling expenses and cartage of fish, £35; fish cans, repairs, &&, £5 ; implements, £3; timber, nails. Sec, £8 ; total, £60918s sd, leaving a deficit of £187 5s od. Mr Spaceman saJd he wished to move a resolution, but before doing so he would make a few remarks. He found that for many years past the Society had been carried on by a few persons, who had put their hands in their pockets for snbscriptions when necessary.At one time they got a grant of several hundred pounds from the Provincial Government, and public subscriptions amounted to nearly as mich. Now only a few subscribed, and it was not to be expected that those few could do everything. They got no subscriptions from the Government, but instead the Government were bringing out a quantity of salmon, and the expense of hatching would probably have to be borne by the Society. If the Society were wound up it would mean the annihilation of all the kindred Societies, who had no hatching houses, as the Society supplied not otily this province, but others with fish. It would also mean the annihilation of the little game left and the important sport of angling, which had grown to be of such advantage to the colony, would be destroyed. Anglers came to fish in their waters, not only from the neighboring colonies, but from England. -It was within his own knowledge that gentlemen had come from England for three months' fishing in'.■Can terbury and Otago, and two gentlemen' whom he had met recently intended to spend from one to three months' fishing in this .province, there- being no trout in Australia. The advantage of encouraging gentlemen to come to the colony .who would find it suitable for investment and sport was apparent. He moved —"That a Committee, consisting of Dr. Frankish, the Secretary, and the mover, be appointed to draw up a circular setting out the position of the Society, such circular, after approval by the Society, to be sent in the name of the President to all persons who may be reasonably expected to assist the funds of the Society." . He thought a deficit of £200, could easily be extinguished in a sportine community like this. He trusted the anglers would come forward and assist the Society. He expressed the opinion that the rivers were now better stocked than tpey ever bad been, and he denied the statements that had been made in a* le,tter which appeared that day in a local paper that the fish were all taken by' poachers. Dr. Fkantkish seconded the motion, and said that the person, wha wrote the letter signed " Angler," referred to by the pre-j vious speaker, had written in a most ungenerous spirit and totally regardless of facts. In spite of the apathy on the part of the Society, of which he complained, 25,000 brown trout had been' turned out in the various streams during the present season. " Angler" stated that' fishing was unobtainable except by those who could afford to travel to the Selwyn or other streams far distant from Christ-' church, and that the Society had neglected to stock the streams in the immediate; neighborhood of the city. He asked whdt wue the facts. He knew one enthusiastic angler who had caught? over 200 fish this season in one of the tributaries of the Avon, and no less thnn 8000 trout had been recently turned into that stream by the Society free of cost to the public: into the Upper Selwyn 3300, Pahau 1000. Hurunui 4000, Waiau and tributaries 5500, and Ashley 3000. Into Lake Swincombe 1000 Loch Leven trout had been placed; 1600 chair had gone to Hall's creek, and 400 Sal mo, salar into the Lower Selwyn, making a total of 28,000 fish turned out during the past season. He asked were these :the results of apathy and indifference on the part of the Society? With facts such as these staring them in the face onght anjzlers, without protest, to permit one of their "number to formulate a charge oc negligence and incompetence against the. Council. He had for nearly twenty years been a member of. the Council, and he defied any person to say that its members had not at great personal sacrifice, and at some cost to themselves, carried on the work of acclimatisation in the face of grave difficulties. And were their labors, he asked, to be thrown away? He could not believe that the public would permtt the Society to expire for want of funds. He felt sure the colony occupied an exceptionally high position with respect to trout fishing. That in no conntry in the world could such Mbut fishing be obtained at so small a cost as in New Zealand. That in England it was not an unusual thing to pay £1 per rod for a single day s tront flshincr, and very indifferent fishing at that, while in New Zealand the public streams, well stocked with magnificent fish, could all be fished for six months by the payment of one single pound sterling. But he warned them that the supply must be kept up from year to jear. In most countries the State made provision for fish culture; not so in this colony, and if the 1 Canterbury Acclimatisation Society were permitted to go to the wall, trout fishing would soon be a thing of the past. Tf it were for nothing else than advertising New Zealand in an effective manner, the variousstreams should be kept wellstocked with fish, as many tourists were coming to New Zealand in consequence of the good trout fishing obtainable. Some were already here; and it behoved the colonists to avail themselves to the -fullest of such a cheap advertisement. The anonymous writer had accused the Council of apathy, and suggested that new blood should be introduced. He for one should be delighted to welcome " new blood ,, to the Conncil of the Society. He would himself resign to make way for "Angler," if he conli show that his knowledge of matters piecicultural could benefit the Society. The apathy had been, he contended, on the part of the public, not on that of the Society. They had not infrequently been compelled to elect a Council from among themselves in consequence of the small attendance at ■ their annual meetings and of the want of the sympathy of the public with their work He believed that the salmon experiments wonld prove equally to successful as the trout: but if success were to be attained, the work of acclimatisation must be steadily prosecuted. He spoke of the way in which, in and oat of season, nheasante, so successfully acclimatised by the Society, bad been ruthlessly slaughtered by people who called themselves sportsmen. He referred to the last consignment of English partridges, which were wilfnlly destroyed within a few months of their being turned out. and to the American grouse and prairie cbicken which had been successfullyintroduced by the Society, but which he feared had met with a similar fate. He cptnnlained of the want of a sportsmanlike feeling in New Zealand, such as existed in older countries on the part of so-called sportsmen, and m^ **??* who cavilled at the work of the Society to tarn their attention in the direction of educating New Zealander* in manly exercises, and to become good sportsmen. The motion was supported by Mr a. a. Webb and Mr Boys. -«•«■" w A letter was read from Mr Henry Overton, who expressed his regretatthe onsattsfaetory position of the Society. Seeing each good results bad been obSunef by toe introduction of the humble bee. starling, and fish, and so much enjoyment derived by all classes from the

latter, he, tor one, felt it would be a most unjust thing to the members of the Society for the public to now merely look on and see the work of years thrown away without making an effort to help. Htherefore enclosed a cheque for £t 2s, and expressed the hope that donations would come in freely. ThejChairman.said that the Anglers* Society should take up the letter in question, and as the writer was apparently a member of that Society exclude him, in justice to the Acclimatisation Society. The action of the Society in bringing out the humble bee had been the means of propagating the red clover, and this would save the colony thousands of pounds annually, wßich had previously been sent out for clover seed. The charge of apathy was a most unfair one. The public never attended the annual meetings, and in order to get a quorum the members had at times to put their hands in their pockets and pay their subscriptions twice over. With all the facts that had been put forward before the writer of that letter it would only "be fair if he were excluded from the Anglers' Society. The motion was then put and carried unanimously, and the'meeting terminated,