The Southland Times. PUBUSHED EVERY MORNING, Luceo Non Uro. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 4, ,1922. AN EXCELLENT IDEA.

Southland Times, Issue 19655, 4 October 1922, Page 4

The Southland Times. PUBUSHED EVERY MORNING, Luceo Non Uro. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 4, ,1922. AN EXCELLENT IDEA.

The proposal of the Acclimatisation Society to establish a hatchcry in the reserve opposite the waterworks is one of very general public interest. So far as the suitability of the site for the Acclimatisation Society’s purpose is concerned there is no necessity to say anything. That ! is a technical question on which the Society is advised by experts, and before a definite decision is arrived at the members of the Council will satisfy themselves by exhaustive experiments that the site offers all facilities and that the town water is suitable for hatching out ova. Assuming that all doubt on this point is cleared away, we feel sure that the Society will have the cordial support of the Town Council and the citizens as a whole. Some legislation may be necessary to enable a portion of a public reserve to be used for this purpose, but it is not to be apprehended that any difficulty will be experienced in this connection. The townspeople will certainly not raise any objection to the use of the reserve in question for the purpose. It is certainly not a delight to the eye at the present time, nor does any other purpose readily suggest itself to which it could be adapted. So far as the actual piece of land is concerned it would be no loss to the town to permit the Society to use it as a site for a hatchery. On the contrary, the town would gain enormously. A hatchery, well planned and well kept, is an attractive place, and we gather from certain remarks made by the chairman of the Acclimatisation Society at Monday’s meeting that it is intended to make the site a public resort, subject, of course, to such restrictions as are necessary to its protection and to the success of its work. Besides being a pleasant and interesting place for the citizens to visit, the hatchery would be of great educational value to school children. It would give very fine opportunities for object lessons in natural history. Unfortunately hatcheries are too often situated in inaccessible places, but those who have hat! the opportunity of visiting them do not need to be told that the ova and fry in the different stages offer a very instructive study. It is this aspect of the scheme that will appeal to the public. The site suggested is not vital to the Society. If it is not available the Society will go elsewhere and the work of keeping the rivers fully slocked will not be hampered. But it is important to the town that the Society should be encouraged and assisted to establish the hatchery within the town itself, so that it may be made an attractive place of resort to the citizens and a means of education to the young. There is here an opportunity of getting a reserve which is at present anything but attractive made into a beauty spot, and of bringing a very interesting lesson from the book of Nature within the knowledge of aH. We feel sure that when the proposals are submitted to it in due course the Town Council will give its hearty co-operation to the Accbmatisatitm Satiety.