ACCLIMATISATION

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 125, 30 May 1930, Page 11

ACCLIMATISATION

WELLINGTON SOCIETY

THE YEAR REVIEWED

The report to be presented at the annual Jtteetingof the Wellington. Acclimatisation Society this evening deals with many matters of interest to. sportsmen and natural- < ists. ;.",.-•";■' "."■■[ '::::'.:"■..:.■ The receipts for the year totalled £9573, Of which fishing' licences provided: £1448 l9Si game licences £1282 11s, deer £417 6s, proportion- of fees and royalties for opossums £1607 16s 10d, and Court fines £140 Us.' ■;'.. •<;■■-■ . ■■■.- .■■■■ ■■■ ■■ ■■ '■-:■ ■-■.. Amongst payments made ■were: —On-ac-count of fish hatchery, £1508;10s Id; rangers' salaries and .bonus, £804 0s; rangers' expenses, £341 18s lid. Grants: Fish research (2), £868 13s 4d; ammunition, £99 14s Gd; forest tracks,. £75; rewards, £10; game farm, £63 12s 3d; pheasants purchased; £644 4s 6d. .-...':.,.. Bank balances were .shown at £2500 (first deposit), £979 7s Sd (current > account), and £64 8s 7d (P.O. Savings Bank). -... .■■■■'.:•.. '■:>■-■ PISCICULTURE. The report showed that pisciculture had been carried on systematically, and that increased activities iv this direction had been reflected in anglers' baskets, as compared with several years ago. Brown trout fry bad been distributed to the total of 1,725,000, and rainbow 195,000; and 8000 brown yearlings and 7750 rainbow yearlings had been released. GAME SHOOTfNG SEASON. The game season of 1929 provided rather more sport than for 1928, but licence fees produced £100 less. Ist May was too line for duck and swan shooting, 'though the last few days of April were ideal, rain and fog being the rule. However, many guns were out, and many good bags were secured. The ducks, as usual, found the sanctuaries by midday, especially on Field's lakes at Waikanae and the Horowhehua Lake. Bags were:—Wairarapa lakes: % guns, 24 birds; 4, 19; 3, 12; 5, 41; 7, 40; 1, 7. Two days' results: 2, 27; 3, 10; 4, 44; 4, 18; 5, 44; 6, 35; 9, 36; 3, 65; 4, 83. foxton: 64109. Levin: 2, 20. Otakk 12, 100; three days,. 2, limit: 2, 32. Rangitikei and Turakina: Hammond's lakes, 7, 72; SimpSon lakes, 12, 108; do., 3, 40; Trotter's Jakes, 10, 140; do., 12, 150; Stewart Bros' lakes, 2, 38; .Smith Bros.' lakes, 13, 65; KnowV lakes, 6, '84; M'Kelvie's lakes, 9, 140 (two days); Wilsoh-Dalrymple's lakes, '7, 162 (two dayfe); d 0.,-9, 140 (two days);do., 18, 150 (two days); Parawanui lakes, 4, 42; Barber's lakes, 4, 80 (two days); Aker's lakes, shooting very poor. I Few ducks ■were taken on the' small lagoons in the Manawatu owing .to the long dry season. .There.'were numbers of small bags, a^ approximately 900 guns were out, but many guns obtained the limit (five) for Bwans. - Pheasants and ' hares are to be found- in Tokomaru, Shannon, and Upper KangitikeL , : . ."•■:■• ■■ ■. < As only half the trophies had reached taxidermists, it was not possible to give a complete v list of red deer heads secured during the-season, but 72 more than fair heads were' listed, .including a 17-pointer and ten :14-pointers. TwoVgood specimens of sambur were.got from Tokomaru. ■ • v j RANGING. "As a result of a liberal distribution of posters, "the '■■ issue with "game shooting licences of lists of protected birds and generar regulations,; the use of fast motorcars, arid closer'touch with the general body of sportsmen and others, the number of breaches of'the regulations is becoming' 'small;by degrees' and beautifully less' in. the Wellingtoh' district. , Those that are. usually, committed.' are the by,r product of.' ignor'ahce and lack of discipline during' the early years of life. -There is, however, a grade of lawlessness which, beginning as.a bad.habit,' speedily became an obsession, and is now a disease. The constant use of cyanide poison for the unlawful .; taking of opossums is made easy to offenders owing, firstly, to the ease with which any casual person can obtain an iinlimited iJnaStity of the poison, and, secondly, by, the wholly inadequate penalty imposed '•'by'- some Magistrates upon persons convicted of such practices. By ceaseless supervision'the society's rangers obtained last year nine convictions under. the opossum! regulations, but the forests' present a problem not easy to solve."