The Patea Mail. Established 1875. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1882. ACCLIMATISATION MISTAKES.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 962, 22 November 1882, Page 2

The Patea Mail. Established 1875. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1882. ACCLIMATISATION MISTAKES.

+ The general aim of acclimatisation, namely, to bring from every part of the earth such birds, beasts, or fishes as be useful to us, and make them part of our own live stock, is an excellent one. To some extent, and especially in colonies like those of Australasia, where the native fauna is very scanty, it is a necessity of civilised life, and we can scarcely imagine how Englishmen would manage to exist here for any length of time without sheep, cattle, horses, and pigs at any rate, to say nothing of poultry. It is desirable, though not absolutely necessary, to go ranch further than this, and add to the animal varieties we require, for food or for ornament. But a good many of the enthusiasts of acclimatisation seem to forget that wherever there are flowers there are weeds also, and it is quite possible that the iweeds majr do more - if 5 acclimatisation enterprises, serious blunders have been made and losses incurred in consequence. And there seems to be do likelihood of any cessation of these mistakes. First of all, we blundered terribly over the rabbits we set free. The soil and climate suited them only too well. In Southland, where they afterwards proved most of all destructive, they were at first protected from sportsmen by penalties, and were reckoned so great a luxury that the first pair brought intolnvercar- ' gill fetched ss. In course of time the rabbits multiplied on such an astounding scale that they increased to. millions in number, could not be kept under, des- < troyed whole runs and made them use- i less for sheep farming, and even acquired i novel habits for defending themselves i from capture, such as swimming rivers, and, it is said, climbing trees. Snares, t dogs, cats, incessant shooting, were all ] tried in vain, until at last poisoned ] wheat was tried, and that seems to have j accomplished a good deal, though there | are very unpleasant stories about as to

poisoning of native name and poultry as well. Indeed, it seems necessary to do the rabbiticide business wholesale, and we know of one city in this colony where one firm of retail chemists alone have just enough strychnine to poison the whole white population of New Zealand. Now, if the gentlemen who first let the rabbits loose had only enquired before they acted, they might easily have found that rabbits, like fire, are very good servants but very bad masters, and that the masters they will be in all but thickly-populated countries. How many thousands of pounds our farmers and runholders have already lost in consequence we do not know, but the amount must be very considerable. To add to the loss, some foolish people—-not satisfied with the most sucessful of all remedies, poison—'have begun importing several varieties of vermin, such as ferrets, mongooses, stoats, and polecats ; and if these ever increase rapidly,.they will prove far greater nuisances than the rabbits, and will not even afford the consolation of being good for eating. How these in turn are to be thinned in case of need, it is difficult to say. Perhaps a further instalment of attractive poison may be successful ; or perhaps it may be necessary to import a few lions and tigers, who certainly might make short work with the smaller vermin, but have uncomfortable habits of their own when let loose.

Then- again with far less excuse than in the case of the rabbits, we have imported (he sparrows. These are of no use whatever for eating, and already the farmers have found them such a nuisance and a loss that, as in (he case of the rabbits, they have got a Small Birds Act passed through Parliament, and are also paying premiums for the destruction of the small marauders. There, also, ignorance of the effects of importation was without cause for as far back as a hundred years a*go, at any rate farmers in the home country were growling about the same nuisance. And here also, as in the case of the rabbits, remedies are proposed which may prove worse than the disease. If hawks and falcons are once introduced, they may kill a few sparrows, but the chickens and ducklings will have to look out for squalls. And the, folly continues. Only a few days ago, we learnt that some over smart person in the North Island had imported some opossums from Australia, and consoled an innocent newspaper paragraphist with the assurance that they would be likely to thrive as there are plenty of gum trees in New Zealand. Yes ! but there are plenty of apple and pear and quince trees, and the owners of these will soon find to their cost that gnm leaves are not the only food that Australian opossums take to kindly. A greater nuisance than these same little oppossnms at night with their sharp teeth and noise as if a dozen saw mills were going on at (he same time, as they are half devouring the nearly ripe fruit, it would be difficult to imagine. And even the fruit does not satisfy them, for they also bark the trees as thoroughly as a herd of goats would do; indeed it is only by nailing tin round the trunks of fruit trees that they are all safe from the opossums’ depredations. Altogether the opossum importation was certainly a blunder on the part of some gentleman possessed of more enterprise than knowledge. Perhaps it will not, be by any means the last mistake of the kind. Importations of snakes, Colorado beetles, phylloxera bugs, Scotch thistles, and other animal and vegetable blessings have been promised us, but we trust that in the meantime it will be made compulsory that our acclimatisers shall, first of all, give due notice to the Government in order that the Government naturalist and botanist may report upon the additions to our farming stock, before they are allowed to be introduced.