CANTERBURY ACCLIMATISATION SOCIETY.

Globe, 31 January 1877, Page 3

CANTERBURY ACCLIMATISATION SOCIETY.

A special general meeting of members of the above society was held yesterday evening, at the Congregational schoolroom, at half-past sis o'clock. There were eighteen present when the business commenced, Sir Cracroft Wilson, president, in. thechair. The special meeting had been called to consider a resolution, of which Mr H. B. Johnstone had given notice, altering the number of members of the Council from nineteen to nine. The president called upon Mr Johnstone, who moved the following resolution:— " That the Council be reduced from nineteen to nine members, three to form a quorum, and that the rules be altered accordingly." The proposer, in his remarks, said his object in moving the resolution was that the principal portion of the work of the society had devolved upon a few members, and, after all the trouble taken by these other members who had not taken the same interest, could come in and upset all that had been done. He believed that a better result would be attained if the number of the Council were reduced to nine. If, however, any member could give him good reasons why the num. ber should not be reduced, he would be willing to withdraw hia resolution. Mr J. 8. Williams moved as an amendment —" That the number be reduced from 19 to 12." Dr Frankish seconded tho amendment. Mr J. R. Hill agreed with the number proposed in the amendment, and said that he thought nineteen too many to have on the Council, but his experience had shown him in past years that very few members did the whole of the work of the society. Dr Frankish agreed with the previous speaker that twelve would be a better working Council than nine. Mr Farr said he had looked up the meetings of the Council for the last year, and found that the average attendance was only 86V60* Hon J. T. Peacock said that as only subBcribara of £1 per annum were eligible for election on the Council, he found on looking through the list that only twelve persona had subscribed that amount the life members of coutsc excepted. Mr J. 0. Boys spoke in favor of tho amendment. Mr Thomas considered that a Council of nine members would not fairly represent so large.«»society. Mr Johnstone having replied, two shows of hands were taken, on the amendment and resolution, each of which was not considered to be satisfactory as to the numbers taken. A division was called for, the result being— For amendment, 17; against, 12. The resolution was therefore declared to be lost, and the amendment carried. This concluded the business for which the special meeting had been called. The annual general meeting was then held, the president in the chair. There was a large attendance. The secretary read the following THIRTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT. " The Council of the Canterbury Acclimatisation Society have the pleasure to submit the thirteenth annual report. " On the 18th January, 1876, the annual general meeting of the society took place in the Schoolroom, Manchester street, but only thirteen members attended. The secretary, in the absence of the treasurer, re*d over a statement of accounts, and also a draft of an annual report in manuscript. "Both these documents were adopted by the meeting, and Messrs Twentyman and Fletcher were appointed auditors. Owing to the serious accident which befell Mr Twentyman at Akaroa, and to the absence of Mr Fletcher in Nelson at the time, those gentlemen did not audit the accounts. It will be necessary therefore when fresh auditors are appointed that they should audit the accounts for the years 18/5 and 1876. " The annual report was printed in extenso in the leading newspapers of Canterbury on the 21st day of January, but it was never published in pamphlet form, nor was it circulated among the subscribers, owing to the fact that the Council deemed it impolitic to do so until thG accounts were duly audited. "Early in tho month of March, 1876, in consideration of the fact that Mr Leonard Harper, of Ham, and Mr Deans, of Riccarton, had graciously allowed your committee to catch ripe fish in the Ham and Riccarton waters for the purpose of stripping them, 200 young trout were given free of cost to those gentlemen. In May, 1876, 200 of the young fish of the previous season remained in the gardens, and these were liberated in the Avon below the Ohristchurch mill. The races haviDg been thus emptied, in the months of July and August, 1876, two members of the garden committee, Dr Campbell, aud Mr Wallace and the curator devoted several days and nights to catching in the river Avon ripa fish which were subsequently stripped in the immediate vicinity of the hatching house, and the eggs were placed in the hatching boxes. Tho result of the labors of these gentlemen was that about 16,000 young trout were hatched out during August and September. " A vote of thanks was passed in favor of Messrs Harper and Deans, for allowing the society to catch fish at all hours during the breeding season, and on the same date the Council passed the following resolution : • That this meeting desires to bear its testimony to the valuable services rendered by Dr Campbell and Mr Wallace, in the cause of pisciculture this season.' " In consequence of the large number of trout hatched out, your Council was enabled to reduce the selling price from £5 to 30s per 100. " During the year 8473 trout have been sold, and 7000 distributed by the society. " In the beginning of the year 1876, many boxes of salmon ova were despatched from London by the City of Durham. The ova in these boxes had been packed in England by Messrs Youl and Buckland, and were consigned to the Victorian Society, Melbourne, and a portion of these boxes were forwarded thence to the Bluff by the steamer Arawata to the oars of Mr Macandtew late Superintendent of Otago and Southland. Youi Council applied to Mr Macandrew, and procured two boxes from that geutlcman, which arrived in Port Lyttelton in the month of Apri' last. One of these boxes was branded in blue paint, with the letter Y. Your committeepresumethatthisboxhadbeen prepared and packed by Mr Youl; the other box had no distinguishing brand, and it is presumed that this box was prepared and packed by Mr Buckland. The ova were made over to Mr Beck, the curator, and your Council bavo the satisfaction of reporting that, notwithstanding all the trials that the consignment per City of Durham bad to pass

through, there are at this moment 175 salmon out of this batch alive and well in the gardens. " Your Council having given the society the result attending the two boxes of salmon ova shipped from London per City of Durham, and made over to this society by Mr Macandrew, now proceed to what may fairly be called the crowning point of your Council's proceedings during the ye?ir. "The Provincial Council, in the month of July, 1874, voted a sura of £3OO to the Acclimatisation Society of Canterbury, for the purpose of procuring salmon ova from the Western Stnteg of America ; but the necessary en luiries not having been completed, and the organisation of the line of steamers running between San Francisco and New Zealand being imperfect, and the communication being highly irregular and spasmodic, the Council did not expend the money, and the vote lapsed. "In the last session of 1875 the Provincial Council of Canterbury revoted the £3OO, A new and more perfect contract for the mail service having been organised, and your Council's communications with the Auckland society, who had arranged with Dr Spencer F. Baird, of the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, giving ever/ promise of success your Council resolved to make the attompt of introducing American salmon ova into New Zealand. As a preliminary, the Auckland society requeated your Council to remit £l5O to Auckland. This request was at once comolied with. " Thanks to the exertions of Dr Spencer F. Baird, chief of the United States Fish Commission, Washington, and Livingstone Stone, Esq, a large Bhipmos.t of salmon ova, said to amount to 400,000, were obtained from the establishment of the Fish Commission on the McLeod River, and having been carefully packed by the latter gentleman, were transmitted to San Francisco. Of this shipment 150,000 were intended for the Auckland society, 100,000 for the Canterbury society, 60,000 for the Napier society, and 80,000 for tho Wellington Society. The packing of these ova was most scientific, and too great praise cannot be bestowed upon Mr Livingstone Stone and his subordinates. These ova were shipped at San FranciECO on board the Zealandia mail steamer, through the agency of Cross and Co, assisted by the New Zealand Government's Agent in San Francisco, Mr R. J. Creighton. When that vessel reached Kandavau on her voyage to Sydney, the ova were transferred to the steamer City of New York, which vessel called at Aucklnnd, where tho curator of this society, Mr Beck, was waiting to take charge of them, and the steamer continuing her course, reached Port Lyttelton about 11 p.m. on the night of 9th Nov. last. Dr Campbell and Mr Wallace, two members of the Acclimatisation garden committee, at once proceeded to Lyttelton, and before 2 o'clock a,m, of the 10th idem, the ova were conveyed to the gardens, where they were unpacked by those gentlemen, assisted by Mr Farr, secretary of the society, and by 9 o'clock a.m. the whole of tho ova were distributed in the hatching boxes. In cousequencc of the melting of the ice some of the ova commenced hatching on board the City of New York, and these, calculated to amount to less than 10 per cent, perished ; the remainder commenced hatching out within a few hours, and continued to thrive. On the 30th of December last it was resolved, in consequence of the scarcity of water races at the disposal of the Council, and of the difficulty of procuring fly eggs and maggots, that 40.000 of the salmon should be released in the rivers Waimakariri, Hurunui, Raßgitata, Little Rakaia, Avon, and Ashley. " This resolution has already been carried out to the extent of 20,000 salmon fry, " The following proclamation has been issued during the past year :—• Fishing in the Rivers Avon, Heathcote, Oust, Irwell Styx, Ashley, Okuku, Waikuku, Waihou, Otaio, Opihi, Riversly, Orari, Waihi, with their tributaries, is strictly prohibited, uulesa for whitebait with whitebait nets, under a penalty not exceeding £IOO, except during months from November to March inclusive, when fishing by rod and lino is allowed by license, on payment of 20s to tho secretary of the Acclimatisation Society.' " Eighty hares have been captured in tho vicinity of Christchurch, and turned out in various parts of Canterbury. " The perch, which came originally from Hobart Town, have not increased in the gardens as they ought to have increased, and it has been resolved to turn thtm into the Heathcote, in order to give them a chance of propagating their species. They cannot do worse than they have done in the gardens. " The accounts epoak for themselves, and prove how carefully the resources of the society have been husbanded. " Thirty-three rangers have been appointed during the year, making a total of 167 rangers. Your council trust they will see that the laws respecting the protection of , birds, &c, will be obeyed. " Licenses for shooting cock pheasants during the month of May, 1876, were granted at £2 10s each; these licenses brought into the society's treasury the sum of £3OO. Sixty young pheasants have been reared in the gardens, which are now for sale by the Curator. Fishing licenses extending from the Ist November to the Ist March, at the rate of 20s for each license, produced the sum of £4l. " A letter has been written to Q. Duncan, Esq, of San Francisco, respecting prairie bens, that is to say American red grouse, but &o answer has as yet been received from that gentleman. Application has been made through the same channel for humble bees. " The following ia the stock at present in gardens belonging to the society :—Salmon, English, 175; do, American, unknown, estimated at from 20,000 to 25.000 ; English trout, old, 50 ; do, young, 200 ; pheasants, old, 15 ; do.youDg, 60; Australian geese, 1 ; Chinese do, 4 ; Brent do, 1 ; wild ducks, English, 5 ; Australian curlew, 1 ; New Zealand owl, 1; do pigeon, 1; wonga wonga do, 1 ; P wekas, 2 ; opossums, 2 ; ferrets, 2 ; ducks, paradise, 2 ; Brahma fowls, 2 ; Dorkings do, 5 ; common do, SO. "In conclusion, your council would remark that, although several attacks have spoearcd in the public prints disparaging the efforts of your Council, and attributing blame to them, it will be observed that the Council have taken no notice of these attacks, preferring not to answer them, having every confidence that the society and the public at large will do them justice." A telegram was here read from the Minister of Justice, asking whether the society would take charge of aud hatch out a box of white fuh ova on board the Uotorua, steamer, from America. An immediate reply was requested as the steamer would probably leave Wellington the following morning.

The question was put to the meeting, and it was unanimously resolved that an answer be at once sent in the affirmative. The treasurer read the statement of ac counts, which showed the receipts from all sou"ces to expenditure ,£943 14s 7d, leaving a credit balance to the society of £640 18s Id, viz, £SOO deposited at one month's call at 7 per cent, and .£l4O 18s Id cash in bank. A sum of £l5O was yet to be received from America on account of the second shipment of ova not forwarded this season, which would give a total balance to the credit of the society of about £790 18a'd. The Chairman said it would be necessary for the meeting to appoint two auditorß to audit the accounts for 1875-76. Mr Johnstone moved the adoption of the report. Mr Hill seconded the motion. Mr Thomas said before the motion was put be desired to refer to one portion of the report, he meant that paragraph referring to the English salmon ova received in April last, per Durham Castle, via Dunedin. The report had referred in the last portion to not having taken any notice of letters and articles appearing in the papers deprecating the efforts of the Council of the society. He would then plainly tell the meeting that he had furnished the correspondence appearing in one paper with reference t» this ovu, as he considered from letters laid before him an act of injustice and hardship had been done on that occasion to Mr Johnson. He had the origin?,! letter 3 in his hand which be would read to them. Mr Thomas then read the letters which have already appeared in print, and said that after hearing theHe and the reply given by the Christchurch society he would confidently say that Mr Johnson had been very unfairly dealt with, he would move a resolution that the report be altered so as to refer to this box of ova, and it was his intention to move at a later portion of the evening that a number of those salmon now in the gardens be given to Mr Johnson as compensation. The resolution he had to move was as follows :—"That the fact of Mr A. M. Johnson having claimed the smaller of the two boxes of salmon ova which arrived per Arawata, and that his claim was disallowed by the Council of the Society be inserted in the report." Mr Fereday seconded the motion, and said though not blaming the Council for the action taken in the first instance, he must say he was surprised at the conduct of the Council in not giving Mr Johnson compensation after the telegram and letters from Mr Macandrew, late Superintendent of Otago, and Mr Howard, curator of the Otago society, bad beeen received and their inteution explicitly made known. Dr Campbell felt certain that the whole of the remarks made were lawyer-like and premeditated, as no member could have known that the report contained this paragraph until it was read at the present meeting. Dr Campbell explained the circumstances connected with the delivery of theße two boxes, and said whatever Mr Thomas's opinion might be,-he felt satisfied that the members of the Council who had gone down that morning to the Arawata for the ova had acted perfectly right both to the society and to the province. Mr Farr related all the particulars of his visit that morning to the Arawata for the two boxes of ova, which the society were advised had been forwarded by the Superintendent of Otago for the society. These two boxes were positively handed over to him on behalf of the society by Captain Underwooi ; they had no distinctive marks on them to show that they did not belong to the Christchurch society .13 advised, and he felt he was only doing hia duty in refusing to give one of them over to any person. Mr Fair then described the fracas which occurred between Mr Johnson and himself. Mr Boys wished to point out that the members neither blamed Mr Farr or any other member of the Council for what was done at the time of the arrival of the boxes, but what the public blamed the society for was not trying to make some restitution when it was'afterwards found out without a single doubt that one of thtae boxes had been intended for Mr Johnson. Mr Hill followed with similar remarks, and thought that as honorable geutlemen the members of the Council should have made Mr Johnson some compensation in fish when the whole facts cams before them at a later stage. Mr George Gould said it was not very often that he made remarks on matters of this kind but from all ho had heard that evening he felt that a wrong had been done to Mr Johnson, and he would support Mr Thomas's amendment. M!r Peacock would not for oue moment 6tultiFy himself by allowing such an addition to appear in the report. He had worked hard for the society—[Hear, hearj—and did not care twopence whether he was re-elected or not, but he would say that as this matter had been laid before and already decided by the Council, if the meeting had no confidence in the Council let them move a straightforward resolution to that effect. Mr J. 8. Williams did not agree with Mr Peacock that the society would be stultifying itself by allowing Mr Thomas's amendment to appear in the report. After Mr Thomas had replied, his amendment was put and lost by two, and the resolution adopting the report declared to be carried. On the motion of Mr Hill, the statement of accounts was adopted. The election of members of the Council for the ensuing year took place by ballot, with the following result: —J. P. Jamieson, Dr Powell, Farr, Hon Peacock, Dr Nedwill, Hill, Boys, Fereday, C. R. Blakiston, Carrick, H. B. Johnstone, and P. Hanmer. This concluded the business of the general meeting. A committee meeting was held afterwards, at which Mr Farr was asked to take the position of hon secretary pro torn, and Mr Jamieson that of hou treasurer. Those gentlemen having consented to act, the committee then adjourned.