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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4887, 20 November 1876, Page 2

At one of the meetings of the Wellington Philosophical Society some weeks ago, a discussion took place as to whether the housesparrow was a really useful importation or not. Dr. Duller stated that about six years ago he I was instrumental in getting this bird ’introduced into the Wanganui district, having offered, through the English papers, a bonus of £IOO for 100 pair of house-sparrows delivered alive to the Acclimatisation Society. The importation proved very successful, and now thousands of sparrows are to he seen in and about the town of Wanganui. He expressed his regret that a general crusade appeared to be waging against this bird in several parts of the colony, which he was disposed to attribute to an imperfect knowledge of the habits of what is in reality a very useful insectivorous bird. The subject has recently been before the Auckland Institute also, and we clip the following from one of our exchanges :—“ The House-sparrow.—The Chairman (Mr. Eirth) drew attention to this subject. An opinion was rapidly gaining ground that these birds did more harm than good. Lately the matter had been investigated by a committee of the House of Commons, and the opinion these gentlemen came to was that the house-sparrow was a bird of very great value. It lived chiefly on insect life, and this was what the farmer could do well without. It had been suggested that the sparrow was now sufficiently well established here to take care of itself. He was of a similar opinion, but he could not go the length of asking the council to withdraw protection from them, and give people the right to shoot them; other small birds would probably also be shot. This would not be desirable, and the best way to prevent this would bo to refuse the right to use a gun in killing small birds. The sparrows had annoyed him as much as anybody in the province, but he thought the good they did was greater than the harm.”