ACCLIMATISATION SOCIETY.

Globe, Volume VI, Issue 696, 12 September 1876, Page 3

ACCLIMATISATION SOCIETY.

A special meeting of the council of the Acclimatisation Society was held at the gardens yesterday at 3 p.m. The business was to consider a letter received from the chairman of the Domain Board with reference to the erection of a fence on the grounds of the society. The following members were present, viz, Sir C. Wilson (in the chair), Colonel Packe, Drs Campbell and Ned will, Messrs H. B. Johnston, Farr (hon sec), Marshman, and Wallace. The letter from the chairman of the Domain Board was read as follows : •« Christchurch, 6th Sept, 1876. ««S. C. Farr, Esq, " Secretary Acclimatisation Society, " Sir, —I have the honor to inform you that the language used by Sir Cracroft Wilson, at the meeting of your Society on 29th August—acquiesced in apparently by the chairman —has been under the special consideration of the Domain Board, and that the Board decline to allow the fence, recently erected by the Government, to be removed to the positioniudicated by me in my memorandum to Hon J. T. Peacock of 30th August, 1876, until a formal application in writing for permission to remove the same has been made by the Society to the Domain Board, and such permission has been duly obtained. " It is also my duty to inform you that the statement 'that the whole thing at bottom lay in the antagonism of Mr Rolleaton to the Society,' is absolutely without foundation in fact; neither directly nor indirectly has Mr Roileston been concerned in this matter, nor had any communication passed either between his Honor or myself, as his deputy, or between his Honor and the Domain Board upon this subject. " I have, &c, " R. J. S. Harman, " Chairman, " Canterbury Public Domain Board." Mr Johnston enquired whether there was a plan of the ground allotted to the sooiety ? The Secretary replied in the affirmative. The plan, however, was in possession of Professor Bickerton, who was about to bring forward a motion for the improvement of the grounds. Mr Johnston would like to know whether there was any record of an agreement to give the Government any of the land of the society ? The Secretary said that the society had agreed to allow the fence of the Hospital to come within two chains of the gate on the Riccarton road provided the Government only occupied 'he high terrace. They had, however, in defiance of this arrangement, put the fence across the lower creek, in which their hatching boxes were. The arrangement he had spoken of was made by it deputation from the society with the Superintendent himself. The chairman said his opinion was, that the proper course for the council to pursue, would be to allow the matter to remain in statu quo ante until a civil tribunal had settled who was in the right. Mr Johnston should contend that they, as trustees for a public body of certain land, had no right whatever to give any of it away. His idea was that they, haviug been put in possession for a specific object, and having expended a good deal of money upon the land, had a perfect right to resist any encroachment. Dr Campbell thought that they had not a shadow of right. They were there simply on sufferance, and it would be very much better for them to represent the matter quietly to the Government, who, he felt sure, would not do anything prejudicial to the interests of the society. He disagreed with Mr Johnston entirely. They were not trustees, because in reality they had no title. He should move the following resolution—- " That as the erection of the fence recently put in the Acclimatisation Society's grounds will greatly interfere with the work of the Acclimatisation Society, the council request the Domain Board to remove the fence, as proposed by the Hon J. T. Peacock in the memo, of August 31st, 1876." Mr Marshman would second this. It appeared to him that they should endeavor to ascertain two things : First, whether any grant or cession was made to the society by the government of the land ; secondly, what terms, if any, the grant was made upon. Mr Farr moved as an amendment—" That the meeting do now adjourn, and that the secretary investigate all books, papers, &c, affecting the title of the society to the land in question, with a view to discovering, if possible, upon what terms it was granted to the society, to report to a future meeting." Dr Nedwiil seconded the amendment. On being put, the original motion was negatived, only Dr Campbell and Mr Marshman votiDg for it. The amendment was then put and carried, and the meeting adjourned.