ACCLIMATISATION SOCIETY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1262, 7 May 1896, Page 27

ACCLIMATISATION SOCIETY.

The eleventh annual report of the Wellington Acclimatisation Society, to be presented at the meeting this evening, records another 3'par's steady progress in the endeavour to add to the attractiveness and natural wealth of the Colony by providing sport and food for its population and inducements for tourists to visit our shores.

Tho report states that New Zealand must bo regarded as a most suitable homo for Ccer, affording as it does every requisite for their breeding, development and sustenance. Tho increase of rod deer, continues the report, has been especially remarkable in tho Wairarapa district, where from a trio introduced into the province of Wellington in the year 1802 have sprung hundreds that now roam over about 50 square miles of country. A great diversity of opinion exists as to when stags ought to bo shot. After getting their new antlers and coat in January, and until rutting commences in March, they are in their crime. The Council of the Society suggests that further steps bo taken to introduce roc, fallow and other varieties of doer into the Wellington district.

Fresh arrangements were entered into during the year for the rearing of phoa-ants, and two pairs of Elliott pheasants, very handsome birds, arrived from London in February. The Virginian quail ordered from Anieiici have not yet been received, but are expected to arrive at an early date.

Tho Animals Protection Act Amendment Aot, 1805, passed last session, is an important measure, says the report, providing for a close season for native pigeons during 1800 and every succeeding sixth year, also repealing the clause in the Act of 1880 allowing the sale of game by holders of shooting licenses. The native pigeon is rapidly growing scarcer, and the Council asks all good colonists to assist in preventing tho extermination of these valuable birds by abstaining from shooting or allowing others tu shoot them this season. Tho Council points out that without tho co-operation of settlers the work of protecting the native and imported game against wholesale and illegal slaughter is a very uphill task. Tho Council regrets the action of tho Government in opening the seasons for shooting native and imported game at different dates for this year.

At Okoroire, in the Auckland district, Uainbow trout is well established in the rivers, and is giving splendid sport, proving itself to be intermediate in its habits between the salmon and the. trout. Trout has thriven in the tributaries of the Manawatu, situated in tho Forty-mile Lush, which an? now well stocked, and afford capital sport. Tho Council joins in tiic recommendation sent in by other societies that the sa'mon ova. which came out in the Kaikoura should la; sent youth, and placet! in the Waiau River, or in seme good river running into the Southern West Coast Sounds, unstooked with trout, if there is one. Already, the report further states, considerable numbers t'( seagoing varieties of front are being taken in tho harbours and bays along tho coast line, which before long should prove a valuable addition to our food supply, and bo of commercial importance. In order to hasten tnis end, too much stress cannot be laid on the importance of giving those fi-h free access to and from the ocean by prohibiting netting at tin estuaries of our trout rivers. If netting of all sorts could lie stopped near the estuary of the Hutt Kiver, and say in Evans' Pay, it would leave two places undisturbed for the protection of fry, and greatly assist in stocking tho harbour with sea-trout, and renewing tho stock of flounders and other sea fish.