THE ACCLIMATISATION SOCIETY.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 843, 7 March 1877, Page 3

THE ACCLIMATISATION SOCIETY.

To the Editor of the Globe

Sin, —I observe in your report of Monday’s meeting of the Council of the Acclimatisation. Society that the treasurer, on his own motion, was “ requested to procure the services of a collector to obtain subscriptions in aid of the society’s funds,” What aid, may I ask, do the society’s funds require? £l5O was received back from America, as it was too late to send out any more salmon ova during the present year, and a refund of £7O has been received from the Auckland Society. And this with the sales, I suppose, made during the last few months, should leave a credit balance of something approaching £3OO. Add to this £SOO lent at 7 per cent, and we have a nice little nest egg to work upon which certainly requires no aid. But, supposing the public, having more money than sense, were to listen to the soft wooing of the collector, and subscribe for purposes of acclimatisation, what would become of the funds in aid? No more fish can be obtained during the present season ; the Council have decided not to import auy more English birds for some time, nor do we hear about anything in the way of importing beyond a few Prairie hens. In June next (judgingby last year’s returns) perhaps £4OO or more will be received for pheasant licenses,.this money will be continually accumulating, and as it is not intended to acclimatise further for some time, what can be done with it ? O ! dear me, bow thoughtless I am. Ox course it would b* a pity that it should lie idle, and no doubt a gentleman will know of another building society who would give 7 per cent for £SOO of it or more; or more likely the already favored society having invested the last £SOO so profitably, are just about ready to receive a second instalment on the same favorable terms. And thus, very likely, the funds-in-aid, subscribed by the public for purposes of acclimatisation, will go to fatten building societies! I somewhat think, gentle public and dark readers, considering the present scarcity of money, you have something better to do with yours, and when the society does begin to acclimatise again, let them spend the money they have in hand first before asking for subscriptions in aid of their funds.

I had a severe think this morning, and rose up full of the impression that had the American white fish belonged to the society, and had it been estimated that £2O per TOO would have been received for them “in aid of the funds,” tho employes would have been looked niore closely after ; but no, it was purely and simply a work of acclimatisation, and, though Canterbury would certainly have derived the greatest benefit from the experiment, if successful, yet it was devoid of money profit, and from want of attention the fish, after being hatched out, were actually allowed to die on the floor of the fish-house.

It -would, after all, not be inconsistent with the past, if the next action of the Council was to raise the curator’s salary, who, if he had no time to attend to the white-fish, certainly did not spend it in improving the grounds—as they were never iii'sucli a scan falqus state as at the present time—and has also, I believe, a lad, receiving tjev'en shillings per day, tp assist him in the v/ork lately of doing nothing. Yours, &c., ONE OF THE PUBLIC. Chri-tchurch, 7th March, 1877.