ACCCLIMATISATION SOCIETIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume I, Issue 286, 12 October 1864, Page 6

ACCCLIMATISATION SOCIETIES.

The following has a special interest for us at this time:— There is an Acclimatisation Society in England, find one in Australian Victoria, both being very enthusiastic and industrious, although occasionally theirs is a vaulting" ambition that o'crleaps itself. In an old country like our own, tlio work of accclimatieing animals has long ago "been performed, almost to the verge of practicability, and little remains to be done. The dog, the hog, the ox, the horse, the goat, the goose, and the duck, are indigenous in .our islands, and have been domesticated amongst us immcmoriaUy. The only exotic quadrupeds introduced among us are the ass and the fallow deer, and they have been naturalized for the last three centuries. The most important of our poultry, the common fowl* was known to us when Julius Ciosar paid us a visit. Tho turkey was introduced not very long after the conquest of Mexico by Cortez, and tho Guinea fowl and the Pliasinn pheasant have been known as longA colony is, no doubt, far better suited for the purpose of acclimatising new animals than the old country ; and Australia, from tho absence in it of most of the animals useful to man, as well as its climate and | vast extent, is more suitable than any other colony. : When first discovered — even when we first occupied it, seventy yen re nco —it had but a single animal available for domestication* the dog, and he a sorry ! variety. In the brief time which has elapsed, we have introduced into it nearly all the useful animals of civilised Europe, and they all ilourish ; one of them, the sheep, better than in any other region of the world—witness the production of fine wool to the yearly value of £6,000,000, and good mutton at 2dper pound. But the colonists of Australia, and more especially of the most flourishing portion of it, Victoria, are not content with good sheep, good oxen, and good horses, for they have all of these: they must also have more outlandish animals, such as llamas, alpacas, and vicunas. These animals arc small Peruvian Camels, whose native habitat is mountain valleys 10,000 feet above the sea level, and yet it is proposed to introduce them into -Australia, a level country, with a hot summer and a mild winter. The very structure of their feet shows that nature has made them for climbers, and in the level land of Australia, composing the chief part of the continent, there is nothing to climb. The flesh of these animals is no better lhan that of an ordinary eamel, which is too coarse for the coarse appetite of a Bedouin. Tho burden of the most poweiful of them, is equal to about one-half that of a donkey, and so their value is reduced to that of mere fleece. In the London market the value of alpaca wool of Cliili and Peru, is double that of the sheep wool of Australia. An animal, therefore, which will consume double the food of a Merino sheep, and requires far more care, must be bred for its fleece alone, and we hardly think this can be worth the while of the etockmasters of Australia.

The ambition of the Australians has induced them to introduce even tho Arabian camel itself which we take to be a step in the wrong direction, more sinister than even the introduction of the llamas and alpacas. The camel is the helpmate of inun w'ten man is in a very rude state, and has very much to do with the desert. From civilized life and from a land of ordinary fertility, it is invariably banished. In a tolerable road and in a tolerable cart, the horse will convey and carry well as much as six camels will earnbadly. Then the horse will bear heat and cold and wot, but the camel heat only. In the mud, and when it rains, there is plenty in Australia, it is not only useless, but absolutely perishes. The Australians are not content with the best sheep's wool in the world ; they desire also the shawl wool of Cashmere, and have with this view introduced the Cashmere goat. Thoy mistake. This goat produces fine wool only in Thibet at some 15,000 feet above the sea, whero it is ever cold and ever dry, for it rains as seldom in Thibet as it does in Egypt. The acelimatizers are here blundering. As to the feathered tribe, all those of our own poultry yards have been already successfully introduced into Australia; but the Australians want our game birds and our singing birds. Some of these they may succeed in introducing, such as the common partridge, thrushes, blackbirds, larks, and house and hedge sparrows, aiul if it please them, crows and magpies, jays and starlings. Some will utterly defy them, such as our grouse, for which there can be no suitable food, and all birds of passage come under this head, as the cuckoo, the nightingale, and the landrail, which would find 110 region for indispensable migration. Pheasants they may have when the Australian Legislatures resolve 011 enacting game laws. The acclimatisation of fishes is a far moi.3 difficult matter than that of land animals, because for the beast man can by art in some degree produce suitable food, whereas nature alone can furnish it for fish. In so far as salmon, a great objcct of desiic to the Australian acclimatisers, is concerned, tho difficulty is greatly augmented by the fact that an alternation of fresh and salt waters is indispensable to its existence, breeding as it does in rivers and spending the greater part of its life in tho ocean.. The salmon docs not exist within tho tropics, and the whole southern hemisphere is destitute of it, while in one or other of these is Australia situated. The salmon docs not even exist within tho bounds of the Mediterranean Sea, although communicating directly with tho Atlantic, which abounds with it. In our humble opinion it is about as likely to bo propagated in tho rivers and seas of Australia as is the mango iish of tho Ganges.—JLoyifloit IZa'aiamcr.