ACCLIMATISATION.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3170, 26 August 1881, Page 2

ACCLIMATISATION.

|To the Edi-Qb of the Daily Telegraph.] Sir,—Although every one can recognise the importance of increasing the " food supply " of the people, it is not so easy to appreciate tho advantages that the colony has derived from the efforts of the Acclimatisation Societies in New Zealand. I take it they have done quite as much harm aa they have done good by indiscriminate importations of grain and seed-eating birds. But touching tbe " food " supply, what have they given us ? They will reply, " pheasants, hares, trout, salmon, and partridges ; and if they have not become, in their season, common articles of diet, it is because sufficient time has not elapsed for their increase." ]Sow, Sir, that is a very plausible answer, and one that will perfectly satisfy the minds of the large landowners. But it will not satisfy me, and it will not satisfy the people. As soon as ever " the season" commences everyone is invited to take out shooting and game licenses, and in their foolishness many sportsmen do so. Then follows an advertisement giving a list of the names of persons who have taken out those licenses. And what follows after that P Why, Sir, a perfect god-send to the newspapers in the form of columns of advertisements running in this style:—" Any person found trespassing with gun or dog will be prosecuted with the utmost rigor of the law." So much then for food. To buy a pheasant from one " licensed to sell game" one must pay 43, Can a bird be said to be " food" in the common acceptation of the word that costs about sixpence a mouthful ? Then, again, how about the salmon of which we have heard so much ? Are these imported fish to be the luxury of the landowner, or are they to come into competition with the homely sole, the eel, and tbe kawai ? If the people are to be prosecuted for fishing for salmon in the the way that sportsmen are for shooting, all I can say is that the Acclimitisation Society may be an ornamental appendage to a ring of estate holders, but is certainly not useful to an industrious people.—l am, &c, Gun and Rob. August 26, 1881.