Acclimatisation Societies.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20302, 30 July 1931, Page 8

Acclimatisation Societies.

The purpose of the reduction in the number of Acclimatisation Societies recommended by the Department of Internal Affairs is an increase in efficiency; and it is quite likely that this is a necessary step. But the beginning and end of successful acclimatisation work is enthusiasm, and amalgamation must not be carried far enough to" interfere with this. The Department's idea seems to be that success begins and ends with effective ranging, and it suggests that the administrative savings made possible by amalgamations should bo devoted to improvements in that field of activity. But again it is probably emphasising the wrong fact first. Ranging is' certainly nocessary, and lack of funds will destroy its effectiveness more readily than any other cause but lack of legal and moral support. Yet the poacher is only indirectly the enemy, and works his mischief only after tlio other enemies have done their worst. The chief enemy is ignorance, and after ignorance comes the lack of a settled policy. Some of the Societies do not know what they arc aiming at. They issue liconses and collect feeg, and aro content if disputes are avoided over the division of the spoil. It is rifle against gun, gun against fishingrod, and all three against the farmer. That of course leaves the poacher very little real evil lo work. What ho steals or destroys may be precious, but it is just as likely to be valueless and the enemy of what is precious, and in any case his destruction is of the crudest and coarsest kind. So far as our rivers are concerned, hope is now concentrated on the activities of a fresh water research committee whose work will one day bridge the gap between the good fishing of the past and the disappointments of the last few years; but haste is impossible, and would in fact bo fatal. On the other hand no one knows, or has even begun to find out, what should be done to restore the quality of the deer herds which, whatever the issue may bo of the present attempt at destruction, will still remain in our remotest and wildest forests. Very few people know much about the habits of birds, or about the balance between birds, insects, vegetation, and rain, and the hearty way in which our correspondents have been contradicting one another lately in the controversy on hedgehogs suggests that the Societies have something to learn about small mammals as well as about big ones. Amalgamation involves so much more than administrative costs and police methods of, control that the Department's recommendation is a little disappointing.