The Globe. TUESDAY, MARCH 6, 1877.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 842, 6 March 1877, Page 2

The Globe. TUESDAY, MARCH 6, 1877.

The Council of the Acclimatisation society have again refused to do an act of simple justice to their late '•urator. At their meeting yesterday Mr. Ftreday Drought forward a motion to the effect that fifteen English salmon be handed to Mr. Johnson, the late curator, as a compensation agreed by him to be accepted in respect of English salmon ova claimed by him. As some of our readers may by this time have forgotten the circumstances of the case, wo will recapitulate them In April of last year a quantity of Euglish salmon ova arrived for the Provincial Government of Otago. Application was made by the Canterbury Society for a box or two, and a reply was received from Mr. Macandrew that two boxes were being forwarded. At the same time Mr. Johnson had also made an application, and was likewise informed that one box was being sent to him. On the arrival of the steamer at Lyttelton, however, it was found that only two boxes were on board, and an altercation took place between Mr. Johnson and Mr. Farr as to the ownership of the ova. Mr. Farr succeeded in maintaining possession, promising at the same time that if the largor of the two boxes proved to be a double one, Mr. Johnson should have the smaller. On being opened, ic was found that the larger box was single, akhongh it contained three times the quantity of fish the smaller one did, and the garden committee therefore refused to give up any of the ova, and their action was subsequently confirmed by the council. There the matter rested for some months till Mr. K. D. Thomas again brought the question under the notice of the council, and submitted evidence to prove that Mr. Johnson was the rightful owner of one of the boxes. To any unprejudiced mind the evidence was clear and convincing. Mr Howard, the curator at Wallacetown, writing to Mr Johnson said—" My instructions to Captain Underwood were that the larger box was for the Canterbury Society and the smaller one for you. The conduct of the society is to me the more extraordinary, that the larger box contained at least as much as three of the smaller ones, and would not have been sent could 1 have conveniently reached two others, according to my instructions." Again the Provincial Under-Secretary of Otago, writing to Mr Johnson by direction of his Honor the Superintendent expresses " his regret at the unwarrantable action which has deprived you of the opportunity of aiding in the experiment of introducing salmon ova into the colony." "It would appear," he says, " that Mr Howard who was directed to forward one box to you was at fault, in not addressing it as directed, but at the same time the exhibition by you of his Honor's telegram ought to have satisfied Mr Farr as to what was intended."

From the above extracts the intentions of the Provincial Government of Ota go are plain enough ; and it is also evident that those intentions were frustrated. A certain quantity of ova wao sent for the society and Mr. Johnson, but because it was not packed in three boxes Mr. Johnson was un justly deprived of his share. And yet Mr. Farr, at the meeting yesterday, had the hardihood to say that "he would not be doing his duty if he did not continue to oppose any grant of ova to Mr. Johnson, as he was not entitled to them." In our opinion the less Mr. Farr says about the moral aspect of the question the better. Mr. Farr, and those members who voted with him, may think it their duty, in their capacity as members of the Canterbury Acclimatision Society, to allow prejudice against the late curator to blind their sense of justice. They may think it their duty to act on the principle that possession is nine points of the law, but after reading the statements of the curator of the Southland Society, and of his Honor the Superintendent of Otago, there can be but one opinion as to the manner in which Mr. Johnson has been deprived of what was clearly his own.