ACCLIMATISATION.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 850, 24 January 1883, Page 2

ACCLIMATISATION.

Acclimatisation may bp carried 1 too far (says the Daily News, of-26th Oct), and^ undertaken in a far too reckless spirit. 1 In Australasia, the home of the kangaroo, the wallaby and the wombat, another proposed subject for naturalisation, a terrible mistake was made in introducing sparrows to eat the insects. The sparrows not only eat the \insects, but grain, fruit and everthiflgi' that comes 1 in their, waj£ jq: jtlie complete despair of the porting them large ■ numbers, *would make almost any sacrifice to get rid of them. But the-interlopers are too hardy and multiply too quickly^ttJ be grappled with. Thenativebhds have no more chance against them than the old black English rat had against the Hanoverian invaders, who , now rpign the undisputed lords of the sewer.)/The sparrow is bad enough, but his; ravages are slight compared with those ,of the rabbit in both Australia and %ew Zealand. What is curious is that the people who did - their best* to exterminate the kangaroo as a useless mouth, the unprofitable devourer of the grass ; which should sustain sheep, should have introduced the rabbit, which has proved a greater scbhrge than would the locust and the Colorado beetle rolled into one. Large districts of grass country have been from time to time completely overrun by rabbits, the herbage has been eatenl off, and the owners ruined. Acts of Parliament have been made against the rabbits, but “ bunny” has increased and multiplied in defiance of returns of rabbit skins imported from New Zealand, averaging some ten millions per annum, give some idea of the enormity of the mischief done fyy ( iJiose which are not caught Enthusiastic acclimatisers who had noted the failure of this, attempt to improve upon natural selection and distribution were justrnow about to try their hand by goihglback to Nature, and, having applied the bane, to apply the anjtgote. Nothing less was proposed thffl| the introduction into Australia Zealand of the vermin abhorred <#hke by farmer and game preserver. Artargo of stoats and weasels,' the natural enemies of the rabbit, was propeSffl as the solutioh of the difficulty' I> mese blood-thirsty little wretches be turned down into the districts infested with rabbits, and the disturbed balance of Nature was to be forthwith* restored. Ferrets and~ polecats; in fact all of the tribe thkf p>uld be . obtained, were to be*- let loose on the devoted rabbits. It secerned unfair ,to “ bunny,?’ who is a good and pretty little beast, fit to eat, and with a useful hide v upon 1 himj whereas polecats, weasels, and'aUSuch vermin, except the stoat, when he' frirns into an ermine, as believer would !do in Australasia, and the sable and marten, are absolutely worthless: