"COSTLY EXPERIMENT"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21467, 15 April 1933, Page 11

"COSTLY EXPERIMENT"

INDIAN GAME BIRDS ' ACCLIMATISATION SOCIETY FISH AND SHOOTING INTERESTS A heavy expenditure, due partly to the cost of chukor importations, and partly to the large total of bounties on hawks' feet and stoat and weasel tails, is shown in the annual report of tho Auckland Acclimatisation Society. The expenditure of £3OBB durthe past year exceeded the revenue, £2734, by £354. An expenditure of £'62 was made 011 the destruction of the pests , mentioned. The accumulated assets of the society were assessed at £1625, of which nearly £IOOO was in cash or in amounts due from the sale of licences. " The importations of chukor have been costly experiments to the society," the report continues. "Of the first major shipment, only 18 birds were landed alive out of 400, and among the survivors, dysentery again broke out, only two cock birds being left. In January, 1933, a further 122 birds were shipped, of which 50 were for the South Canterbury Society, but this shipment was as unfortunate as the first. Only S3 birds were landed, and «ere quarantined 011 account of dysentery, and of this number 50 have died to date. Small shipments to private buyers have been more successful, and the society has now decided to discontinue importing birds 011 their own account. The total cost was £268." The council of tho society had decided to continue tho work of destroying the goats and pigs 011 the Mount Moehau area of the Coromandel Peninsula, as part of its work in protecting native bush and native birds. It had forwarded £7 worth of rifle ammunition to the local club, and in addition offered a prize of £5 to the person obtaining the largest number of goat tails. Last year 160 goats were destroyed and this year 239, according to the number of tails sent in. Actually it was considered that nearly 300 goats had been shot, but owing to tho density of the bush a large proportion of the tails could not be retrieved. The report referred to the growth in numbers of opossums since the Government had declared a close season throughout the Dominion, and recorded that representations had been made to the effect that 110 further liberations sould be permitted or close seasons declared until the effect of the opossums 011 indigenous forest life and horticultural interests had been observed. Dealing with fishing interests, "the report stated that 104,000 fry were liberated and 450,000 ova placed in suitable streams, with very small losses in transit. A report from Professor E. Percival had pointed out that, generally speaking, the rivers were well provided with feed, but that in Lake Arapuni, owing to its period of emptiness, the plant and animal life had seriously diminished. It would probably take two years to restore a "nucleus population" which would be the beginning of the permanent fauna and flora. The society's report stated that fishing licences to a total of £650 had been collected this year, compared with £723 in the previous year, but as the season had not yet ended, a few more licences might be sold.