NELSON ACCLIMATISATION SOCIETY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 16, 17 July 1871, Page 2

NELSON ACCLIMATISATION SOCIETY.

Tf— : o ■'■ fine following report has been fdrtiardeduo His Honor the Superintendent|by the Secretary of the Acclimatisation Society. Appended to the original document is a statement of the accounts, together with. a memorandum of the birds &c. that have been imported, and to which, as will be seen, reference is made in the report, but this we have not deemed it necessary to publish.] . His Honor the Superintendent, Nelson, ■ Sir, — Iu compliance with the wishes of the members of the Provincial Qouncil \ as expressed by /them in the last session, I. have the honor to enclose a statement of , the receipts and expenditure of the Nelson Acclimatisation Society, together with a memorandum of the birds aud animals imported since the year 1865 wheu I was . appointed to the Honorary Secretaryship, and in doing so J desire to offer a 4ew| remarks on the results achieved during the period that has elapsed between that, time and the present date. ' ■ •' '"''/'. „!'.'!' ' The Society has been working in so quiet and unostentatious a manner that those who have been accustomed to read in newspaper paragraphs of the large shipments of birds, &c., that from time, to time are recorded as having arrived in the other provinces may be disposed .to underrate our endeavors to introduce useful janimals into this Province, and to believe that they have not been rewarded with- the success that has attended the. proceedings of the sister Societies merely because we have not been io the habit of furnishiug frequent or lengthy reports,, but I would ask that we may rather be 'judged by the visible results of the .efforts we have made ;. and I should also wish it to be taken into consideration that, the funds placed at our disposal have been exceedingly limited as compared with those which in other provinces have been devoted to a similar purpose. As an instance' of 'this, I may state .that the amount expended by the Ota&o^ Society for the year 1869-70 was, in round numbers, £1440, whereas the whole of the moneys laid out by me within the last six years, as shown by the balance sheet appended hereto, do not exceed £1257. I will now proceed to furnish a few details of the work that has been accomplished by the Society | and, first, with regard to I.IRDS. As is well known, a; few pheasants were, many years agbv'Vurned out in the Motueka district by Mr. Dashwood. These birds proved most prolific, but, as they did not appear to extend beyoud the locality in which they were first liberated, I deemed it advisable to have a number of them caught and distributed throughout the whole of the settled portions of the provioce at a cost, as will be seen by the enclosed balance-sheet, of £51 183. That such a step was a judicious one has, I think, .been amply proved by the fact that from Motueka Valley to the, farthest poin t of Suburban North these birds may be found ty numbers .so large that I have no.doubjt your .Honor's, Government will see no to throwing the whole of the fettled districts open for pheasant shooting^ during brie or more months in the ensuing year. Of the larks it is v needless for. me to speak. Throughout the length and breadth of the province their song. is now to be heard, and it is no on my part to say that these birds are to be found in hundreds, if not in thousands, throughout the whole of the eastern portion of the province. With regard to the other birds, such as Californian Qtfail' Blackbirds, Starlings, Sparrows, Java Doves, Finches of every description, and various other 1 kinds of feathered songsters, lam glad, to say that lean also furnish a satisfactory report. They are notV perhaps, to in such numbers as the larks or pheasants, but they. have, undoubtedly .increased to. ..such an extent that there is no „ danger .now of their belfiff exterminated. It 'is unnecessary for me here to speak' or them all in detail, but I; refer you ;to the enclosed list wherein will be found such remarks as, I have 'felt myself justified in making' with regard to their increase or otherwise. .* I libw cot^e 'ttf a 'subject/with refgard ( to which the Society is to ' lie most warmly) congratulated on the success^ to_t ha% attended' its 'je^rtSv : :;l, ; refer Io tber j „ v w |_ In the year»iß6B,'l;; in : accbrdahce' >vHUiV the ' desire "of ''thVjSod^ , tfasma^;^ Trout ova, Ijßee^-inp^nQW;, refer,. to<>;the.j particulars Jeff/; imjqy-tnpfolofiuw^cW^l furnished a rv fu11,,, report , at tljp , f tirae, but I • Votlild 11 direct; .youi l «tebtion f with some little pridei'to 1 the noble spec!-' 1 h_.ens jofi ytbid/iiahr )that?/are jhowj ;ttfiibe\ aeen- m.'iJffife&M Matta'P <riVer(i Where' they are to 'be ;i found of dimensions

altogether unknown in English streams ; in addition Io which I "have great pleasure iff stating that yjpung fish; of last year's ba^re been seen , measuring from The existence of this most desirable of fish in our waters is now an established fact, and it will be an easy matter now that we have them in considerable numbers in the Maitai river to extend them to the other streams of the Province. The Carp have also increased considerably, but I have not yet been "able to ascertain whether the Perth and Tench that were liberated in the Eel Pond have bred or not; although I have every reason to believe that they, have done so. I now come to the DEER AND HARES. Of these I am not able to speak from personal knowledge. Reports, however, reach me from time to time of large herds of Red Deer having been seen on the hills in the neighborhood of the town, and I ani given to understand . that the Fallow Deer which were turned out near Richmond have also increased in numbers. A few. Hares, have been imported and turned out, butf of these nothing is known. There is, however, , no reason to suppose that they have not multiplied. I have written- to Mr. Grimwood at Melbourne for a further, supply of this species of game, and - have for some time been expecting to receive several brace by every steamer from Australia. Such is a slight sketch of what has been done by the Nelson Society, but before concluding my report I would take the opportunity of replying to an objection that was raised by some of the members of the Provincial Council when asked to vote us the small suri\ of £100. It was then, argued thatj as I had reported having £195 in hand, it was totally un-. necessary to supply the Society with any further funds. . My answer to this is that in sending to England or America for a shipment of birds or other animals, it is perfectly useless to attempt to get a small order' satisfactorily executed, as, under such, circumstances, it would not pay to remunerate any person to take/ charge of them, whereas if a large number is sent for, the society would be justified in engaging some competent person to devote his whole attention to them on the passage down. It is for this reason, and not from any remissness on our part, that we have been husbanding our funds, which, when they have attained sufficiently large , proportions, we shall have^much' pleasure in expending upon the importation of such stock as we may think it desirable to introduce. s Trusting that my brief report may prove satisfactory to the Provincial Councillors, and to the public generally, , <r I have, &c, FREDEItICK HUDDLESTON, Honorary Secretary. For remainder of news see fourth page.

New Zealand Governmental and Financial .Troubles.— A: correspondent of the Melbourne. Leader, making a tour of this Colony, writes as follows from , Auckland :— i". Speaking of New Zealand's governmental and financial troubles, we may say that it is the; most expensively—rand sequently the worst — managed of lands. It has,.; in fact, the cumbrous governmental system of tbe United States of America, with its thirtyeight millions of inhabitants, applied to a country that has but a poor, quarter of a million only 'in all its length and breadth. This much-governed people groan with the burden of this misapplied system, and feel it severely in a taxation that amounts to between six and seven pounds per head annually, and in an increasing national debt." • ; The success of the dredges on the Shotover River, Otago, is causing' quite a sensation in the district, and will, we {Arrow Advocate) believe, lead some of our generally speaking non-speculative " lowlanders" to come out of their shells" and take a practical interest in this branch of mining. We understand the formation of a Limited Liability Company is on the tapis for tbe building of another dredge. It is proposed to fix the shares at £1 each, thus affording both to rich and poor an opportunity of speculating. Messrs Graves and party have just got 2870zs for two days' work, and Barkers dredge got some 70ozs for about a week's work. We also hear that 200ozs have been taken out by Wood's dredge during the past few days. Such returns, certainly offer considerable for the increased prosecution of this description of mining industry. j. The Whale which was lost by the whaling party at Otago is supposed to have drifted on to the beach at the Taieri. Tbe Bruce Herald says :—" On the 10th' instant, Mr. Merrilees, a settler at the Taieri Beach, discovered a whale lying high and dry on the sea beach, fronting the' property of Mr. D. Milne, to whom he made known the discovery, and who agreed to divide the prize share and share alike with Mr. Merrilees., Operations were at once commenced by them to secure the benefits of their lucky windfall. The fish is of the variety known as the black or hunchback whale, and before dissection was 36 feet in length, and some ten feet in 'height. The services of a ladder were required to mount his back aud remove theblubber,some ten inches thick. Twenty barrels ot blubber were obtained, and three boilers were speedily erected on the beach, and the rendering process ,at once begun, so as to reduce the blubber to the marketable and highly valuable article known as whale oil. The wbaleboue, which measured two feet in length, was also secured. \ Working the Share Market. — Says the Auckland Evening Beios : — Many persons wondered yesterday why the share market had so suddenly fallen. The arrival of the Hero with the Victorians reputed to be aboard was supposed sufficient to cause a rise in shares, and the contrary result was looked on by many as remarkable. These are they who know not the ruses of the mining exchange. It appears that in anticipation of the purchases of the Ballarat men, their friends here commenced "bearing" the market by rushing about in a seemingly anxious way, offering their shareTT;o*e^»erybody at a low price. The ruse of course, succeeded with the green 'uns, though the older birds were not caught. , The-TKames Gold Mining Company's shares, for example, fell to £33 10s under the influence exerted, and .we believe a number of persons with few shares and not much means,, and consequently timid, lost considerably. They are smart men, very smart men entirely, these Victorians, and we shall be glad to see as many of, them as can come ; but little discreditable games of this sort cannot he expected to succeed often. If the peonje of Auckland are flats, they are, of course, fair game for smart men, but we hope this "bulling. and bearing " for which Ballarat has been somewhat scandalous, will not be overdone., A Lucid: Servant Girl.— -The Pleasant Creek News. tells the following story : f ;Romanceaiu real; life are not .always to be met with, and. the adage that ' truth is stranger. jthan^fict^pa'.'is, .after all not very frequentlyiibome-, out rjby every-day experience. One of these casjes, however, did occur in the family of a wealthy squatter on the Wimmera a few days ago, a sejrv^nt engaged to attend on the children havjng,stepped!i,nto a,t;tle<and a property of* 000 ; under the name; 6 f Lady Elizabeth Morton. '■■- It would appear that the lady, while acting as servant in the family,^ fpequently -assured 'those around her of her aristocratic i- connexions, .but no one .credited her "tale. "She camelout, it appear sji to tipß 4t>a.U7ft4eq_Uftte ( jtp ber.ipositiou, ,»nd. it/ is not improbable that buffer 'the'efforta' of ;an able lawyer in^Melbourne, r Lu6y Elizabeth^ : 7t^^i^d^^^^^ r^ day of her

Fouk gentlemen in Hokitika were playiog.a game.of whist a few night ago, when one of them, on dealing the cards, had the fortune to find that his own " hand " con=_ sisted of the thirteen trumps. Players of whist, and readers of Hoyle, will be able to appreciate the extreme r 4 adty of the circumstance. .. . ' The following" is from "our Hokitika morning contemporary. It is of a most satisfactory and assuring character : — A number of passengers.. who have left- the. Coast lately, have done so with- a competency, and have proceeded Home to bring out some of their friends. As many as four or five left on the last trip of the Gothenburg with over £1000 per man, and expressed their determination to return to the West Coast Goldfields. The Rambler in New Zealand.— Under this title, a correspondent of one of the newspapers has been relating his experiences of New Zealand travel. This is what he says of Canterbury : — I said Lyttelton was addicted to horsiness ; so is Christchurch. It has its •' Tattersall's," and "the hotels are decidedly "horsey." It used to- produce some very; good animals, but of late I am told it has lost, ground in this resject. However, if the., glory of the past is no more, the reminiscences of it are still devoutly preserved in the breeches and boots and spurs one constantly sees walking about the streets, or standing -cross-legged at the bars of the hotels. Canterbury has principally been settled by gentlemen of means — younger sons, and others, who have come out from Eugland, and plunged into sheep farming, and some of them have made such a dive that they have not been able to get their heads above water ever since. But the squatters are the lords of the soil ; they are the pink of the fashion of Canterbury, such as it is. They know this, and. they let you know if, '- too, before you have been there long. Some of them are gentlemen, and some not. You may generally distinguish those who are not by au infallible sign, Whenever you see a man dressed in a hybrid jockey costume, smoking, a short clay pipe, with a' scarf thrown over his shoulder, talking "horse," you may set him down very safely as belonging to that class which does not consist of gentlemen. There is a very fair sprinkling of this ; class in Christchurch, but, on s the other hand, nowhere in New Zealand do you meet more thorough gentlemen than the respectable squatter. Sheep-farming has not been so successful in Canterbury as could be wished. This is owing.to the want of an extensive market for mutton) 'and, besides ;boiling : down, meat preserving is now being tried. Several companies have been formed, and a quantity, of preserved mutton lias been sent home and. favorably received. If the meat-preserving industry prove a success, there are bright days in store for the squatters, who will then have a profitable market, and ah incentive to increase their flocks. Besides horsiness, the other prominent feature about Christchurch is ecclesiastiealness — to. coin a. word. I" have already referred to the clerical ' style of some of the buildings, but the influence of the "Church seems to have gone far beyond this. You jmay see it in the very, dress of the people, and-, even the tall trees have a staid clerical air about them. . . JThe Celestials.— The Dunstan Times winds up a very lugubrious article on the Chinese difficulty, at present the subject of much discussion .on the goldfields, as follows : — " Their presence io numbers has now become objectionable, and unless some legislative enactment\:can be devised; to keep them in check, we shall be eaten up by the strangers. Not only the goldfieldf, but all the little branches of industry in the bargain- will fall into their hands. This has been to a considerable extent in Victoria, and will be so here. At the . coming meeting of the General Assembly, we hope that some measures, will be adopted to stay the Celestial plagjle, or we shall be extinguished in 'the ..strugglb/' Very sad indeed ; Extension of the . Church op ENGLA>ib in Victoria.— -Special; services were recently held in Melbourne, on ( the 29th June in commemoration of the foundation of the .diocese -of; Melbourne, and the 24th anniversary of the consecration of Thv Perry,, the t first ..Bishop of /that j d'iocese.' n ; ; Thß^ermon at,- the, ; Cathedral ; was j preached : ok the; Deanji'whb in the course 'otfhisVbraarts, drew a'striking Cy'h- ; tras ! t ; between" tilie preVntr c'ond ition'of '' the * diocese and.,tba(f in which it was when the. bishop was first appointed to preside over ;it. When, four-and-twenty years ago that very day, :Div Perry -was- consecrated in Canterbury" Cathedral, there were only three clev'gyjmejn jof the Episcopalian denomination officiating^ in the^ cb-iqlay — one in Melbourne, one in Geelong, and one at Portland. }l A\ery small' bu't very pretty icburchbiril iGeelotfg^ii some;' unfinished [churches in Melbourne, . several brick jfic^olWufles'-ia ■'>*m&gp.Mtii^Bss i Portland, and a schoolroom- in course of

erection at JJarraboql,; with one dilapidated building of a-iimilar itarap in ■ included tho wlmle of the structures adapv ted either for Mlie assembling together of. the. old or the instruction of the young, and in one instancs only was^ie^aware of a layman ministe.ring:,tp the spirituial of his brethern it ihAttfxmk. ,j£he progress made in the diocese since Monday January 24, 1848, when the "bishop landed in Vic-; loria, was such that he believed in no part of.'.the, world, -in v any age, could the English Church show an equally proportionate increase in -the same time. Instead of three clergymen,' there were now 129, and in the" archdeaconry of Melbourne and Geelong alone there were no^r 72 churches, and/at least 12i placeslwhera..congregations assembled.. ,Nor was rthatrtbe only . indication of progress.; : Readers .and: cate-chists-had been all pyer the diocese, two fine grammar schools had been erected?-- and a college in connexion with the University was in course of completion., Moore Col lege y ; toq,;. an in-; 6tit'ution in a neighboring.; colony, y had had its career of usefulness much enlarged by the encouragement afford edby**lns diocese, and-had turned out numbers of the most valuable clergy now ministering in ; the colony..- '■; ) „,■ \i- ■'■■ J: In America^ young' men 1 have adopted a novel method of obtaining,. Is isses from young ladies.. They assert," with all seriousness and on the authority of scientific writers, that the concussion produced by a kiss will cause the flame of a lamp to flicker, and easily induce the damsel to experiment in' the interest of science. The first kiss or two, the parties watch the flame to see it flicker, but soon become so interested -in the experiments as to ...let it flicker if it wants to. They go on with the kissing and let the flickering rip. ,'. Strange, if Tjkue. — A most extraordinary phenomenon has taken, place in the back country of the Lachlan: (writes; a correspondent of the Pastoral Times), viz., a thunderstorm ,of mice, , which literally covered the ground, devastating rations, clothing, &c., .700 being poisoned in one nighViin one. duelling in Mosgiel. One.resideut. is fatterfing pigs on ; them, stating that poison hardens the" meat j others are at their wits', end to circumvent them ; another breeding cats, thoroughly broken iD, at- £l each, and warranted. Peakyiile, a township two miles distant from Mosgiel, is incco'mmotion, seeing the destruction of these ..little gentry ; onej. gentleman, a philosopher,preaches patience -r-a thuaderstorm of cats is to follow, to swallow up the lesser kind. : '