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Lyttelton Times, Volume LVII, Issue 6536, 7 February 1882, Page 4

A membhb of the Acclimatisation Society’s Committee is anxious to establish a menagerie in the Society’s grounds in order to make the public pay something for admission. Another member thinks the public will object. There is a great deal of truth in what member No. 2 said. It is, however, possible to imagine conditions which would considerably reduce, if not altogether remove, the public objection. If the proposed menagerie were made to include all the sparrows in New Zealand, it is possible that then the public growl against an admission charge would be neither' loud nor deep. If the hares could be added, the growl would be, by so much, leas. On no other condition could we dream it likely that the public would not object to the proposal of Dr Frankish. The use of the grounds which the Society now occupies was granted by a public which did not object to subscribe to the object's of the Society. The return the public meets with is curiously cool. Because it has subscribed once, out of pure kindness, it must be made to pay a yearly contribution. It is like proposing to repay a loan by confiscating the money. , The Society, moreover, is not in a position to establish a menagerie of the very smallest pretensions. Consequently the Society wants the public to pay what it now enjoys of right, viz., entrance to the gardeni as they now are. But, if w«

mistake not, the beautification of the gardens was the consideration which the Society held oat as an inducement to occupation. To make a charge under those circumstances would be repudiation. Viewed in all its lights, the financial expedient of Dr Frankish is objectionable. We recommend a more honest expedient to the Society. Let the members put their hands into their pockets and subscribe.