PROPOSED CONFISCATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13304, 10 October 1906, Page 6

PROPOSED CONFISCATION.

The proposal of the Government to confiscate the interest of the Auckland Acclimatisation Society in the famous trout-fishing districts is one which will at once astonish and dismay all fairminded sportsmen. The work of acclimatisation has been left in the hands of voluntary associa.tions, authorised to issue licenses for sport in the territories they have stocked. -; No acclimatisation society has done better work than that of Auckland, the result, of its strenuous and persistent . activity, being that this part of New Zealand has become famous among the anglers of the world and that many thousands of tourists and sportsmen have been attracted to the colony. The work was commenced by private subscription, and as funds allowed has been sedulously extended. Las-; year, for example, no less than 1*200,000 rainbow trout ova were collected and. 572,000 fry distributed in stocked and unstocked parts of the province. The funds of the Society have been, carefully nursed and economically expended under the direction of j sportsmen whose whole heart is in the work, and who have brought the methods of the Society to a degree of effectiveness which deserves the most cordial public appreciation. And what is their reward! That without any specified reason and without any consideration ' for its consequences the Governmentwhich has not contributed a single shilling towards the work done—calmly announces its intention to' take the, Counties of Rotorua and East Taupo and parts of the Counties of West Taupo and Piako out of the territory of the Auckland Acclimatisation Society and form the confiscated region into a district which will be., controlled by the Tourist and Health Resorts Department. This action is. most indefensible. " Not only will the Society lose at least- -£500 per annum in licensing ices, being a partial return for the heavy expenditure made in the threatened district ; not onlv will the rest of Auckland be deprived of the base from which the whole province was gradually being stocked ; but there is no reason to anticipate that the fishing interests of the Lakes Region will be advantaged. On the contrary, a much inferior administration is to be expected, for the Society represents the angling' and sporting fraternity, and has always been shrewdly and energetically managed. . Our Auckland members ought to bestir themselves to prevent this gratuitous raid upon a most deserving local organisation, and the kindred societies of the colony ought to exert all their influence in the same behalf. For bureaucracy grows by what it feeds on, and if this con-; fiscation is allowed no acclimatisation society in the colony will be safe. V. ,' * :"■:,'■ - : "' ■