THE SMALL BIRDS AND THE ACCLIMaTISATION SOCIETY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XX, Issue 6821, 27 September 1883, Page 6

THE SMALL BIRDS AND THE ACCLIMaTISATION SOCIETY.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —The various communications in yonr columns seem to go in one direction—viz., unanimous condemnation of the former, and' equally unqualified reprobation of the latter. I should like, however, to be allowed space; for a few remarks, and will commence with my own personal experience. I arrived in; Auckland in 1857, and was with a short in- : : terval about ten years in the country, returning again some three years since. I was thus present when there were no small birds, ; absent when they were introduced, and returned again when, as new, they are numerous. At the time of my former sojourn I had much leisure, was constantly in' the saddle, and saw a geod deal of the. country, and in those days the settlers were, unanimous in outcries on the subject of cater-, pillars, as to the extent of which evil there could not be the smallest doubt. Many times I have ridden along the road when the horses' foot-marks were leftin a moving mass crossing from one side of the road to the other, while I have just as often seen whole fields of maize and other produce entirely deviietated.; I am rather surprised that there have been. no letters from old settlers referring to this state of things, and I asked one gentleman a few days since if he did not remember it. " Remember it, I should think so !" he re-;. plied, " why I recollect one year I wanted to go home to England, and nearly arranged. to sell my standing crops—l forget the exact amount, but it was some £500 or £600, but. the negotiation fell through, and the cater-; pillars came, and I never got a penny out of. those creps." Well, I have now been over, three yeara back in Auckland, and I have not seen one such swarm of caterpillars, and ; it certainly seems to me that, in tbe absence, of severe frosts, which at home have doubt-.1 less a beneficial effect, there is no option but to credit tbe small birds with a staying; of the caterpillar plague. I would not,; however, wish to be misunderstood. I do'; not affirm that the small birds are constantly feeding on insects, or that during seeding and . harvest time they may not prefer grain and, seeds, but when the latter are not to be bad,/and this will be for 9 or ten months in the; year, then I contend they are mainly depen- : dent on the larvas of caterpillars and insects, -i j seeds of weeds &c. Neither do I wish to underrate the loss and annoyance to small, isolated settlers, many of whom suffer con-; siderably, as" in the case of smull patches of' grain &c, the birds from a considerable area will assemble, but the matter must be judged from a wider basis, and my contention would., be that in districts where cultivation is. general, the agregate evil would be far more': than counterbalanced by the good, and I think that this position is supported by the fact that we do not hear these complaints from the large growers like Mr. Firth and others, while tho present average produce of) grain per acre shows no decrease ae com-' pared with former years, but the reverse. ■ And here I should like to make a.; digression. I have said that I Icfo the colony prior to the arrival of any small birds, but their impor--tation was then under dieoussiou and; urgently recommended, as indispensable if agricultural pursuits were to be carried 0n,., and I gather from inquiry that the consensus of public opinion' was almost unanimous in: their favour. I fail, therefore, to see what. : object is to be gained by a constant stream: of abuse directed againet the Acclimatisation. Society, because it devoted its funds and the : exertions of its members to meet the wishes-: and urgent appeals o:f tho settlers of the day.: Those exertions were approved of at the' time, and whether productive of good or! evil—and that is a .point far from settled 1 —it seems a childish proceeding to seek to. , throw solely on the shoulders of the society; a responsibility undertaken with the concurrence of the community at largo. With regard to Mr. Hutton's letter relative to the prairie hen, 1 can only say that when tho introduction of this bird was under discussion,' there were gentlemen present at the society's meeting, natives of the country from which this bird hails, neither were these gentlemen unconnected with agricultural pursuits. The statement that as many as 50 of these birds (they are as large aa pheasants) have been seen on one apple-tree is (although vouched by eminent authority) rather a startling one, but I should think it probable that, with this information before it, the society will make farther enquiry before introducing any more of . these birds ; and, as up to the present time some two or three brace only have been liberated, it is doubtful if any great harm has been done. With regard to the remarks that the society should interest itself in the introduction of fish and plants, a little enquiry or attention to the reports that appear from time to time in your columns, would show that some five-sixths of tjie society's funds are now and have for some time past been devotsd to those objects. I am, &c, Arthub Bull. Mount Eden, September 24.