ACCILIMATISATION SOCIETY.

Southland Times, Issue 1563, 12 April 1872, Page 3

ACCILIMATISATION SOCIETY.

The members of the Southland Acclimatisation Society held their annual meeting on Wednesday evening, 10th mat., at the Prince of Wales Hotel, W. "Wood, Eeq , being called to tho chair. After the reading and confirmation of the minutes of the last anntml meeting, the hon. Secretary, Mr Edw. D. Butts, brought forward the report of the 1 committee, as follows, which was read and adopted : — In presenting the fifth Annual Report ot the Pouthland Acclimatis :tion Society to its members, the committee are glad to be able to report the continued success of tho trout and salmon trout under the care of the curator, Mr Howard. During last winter a email spawning was obtained from the one female fish in the ponds, a greater portion of which was succees'ully hatched. Out of this stock 100 were forwarded by Mr Wentworth to the - Otamiti stream ; 60 were placed in the Omut, near Eiverton ; and the remainder were deposited in the Makarewa. ' your committee having deemed it desirable that this stream should receive as large supplies a? possible, that it may be well stocked at an early date. There are in the ponds over 50 three and four year old trout.,, so that we may look forward to a very large hatching during the coming winter. In order that the distant streams may receive their fair proportion of the coming supply, the following gentleman . have engaged to erect hatching-houses for the breeding of the fish, viz., I Mr Wentworth, of Wantwood ; Mr It. Cuthbertson, Waiau ; and Mr A. M. Clark, of Mararoa Downs ; and as the ova can be supplied in greater proportion, and with much less risk of injury than the living fish, it is in every way desirable that thtse offers should be accepted, Mr Howard being willing to give every assistance and advice in the treatment of the ova, and proper method of treatment of the young fry, previous to turning them into the streams. As regards the acclimatisation of the true salmon {saJmo salar), your committee desire to inform you that this subject has had their constant and unremitting attention. You are probably aware that your committee has succeeded, with the assistance of His Honor the Superintendent, in inducing the Government to place a sum of. £500 on the Estimates for the introduction of salmon. This having been telegraphed to the Secretary cf the Society, a meeting of the committee was at once called, when it was unanimously resolved that in order to secure an immediate shipment, the sum of £300 should be guaranteed in addition to that voted, and this would have put the Government into possession of ample funds for carrying out the object in 'view. Unfortunately, however, nothing was done by the Government at the time, and the opportunity of obtaining the ova for this season was lost. The committee has been informed that the Colonial -Secretary has now written to the AgentGeneral, desiring him to make arrangements for the shipment during the next season, so that it may be hoped that before very long the true salmon ova will be in the hatching-house. Independently of this, your committee has been (tbrrugh the Hon. Secretary) in correspondence with Frank Buokland, Esq., the well-known pisciculturist in England, with a view to a trial shipment after the method proposed by Seth Green, of America ; and this shipment Mr Buckland kindly promised to undertake. Accordingly, a small parcel, containing 1,000 ova, arrived during last February, the result unfortunately proving a failure, the ova having evidently been dead fora considerable period, and judging from the heat of the sawdust in the box, it was plain that the result could not have been otherwise. Tour committee .has now suggested another method, which is likely to prove more successful, and should it prove so, the method being comparatively inexpensive, annual supplies may be obtained, which cannot be the case ur.der the old expensive system, unless under the condition of li.rge assistance from the Government — a condition which cannot be calculated upon with certainty. The. salmon trout have been placed in a pond prepared for them, covered with wire netting to prevent depredation by birds. This pond having been provided with a spawning rill, further disturbance of the trout will be unnecessary. The pheasants and quail have unfortunately not increased as fast as was hoped. A large number of pheasants was hatched out, but many died by the severity of the weather, in the early part of the summer, and others were destroyed by rats. The recurrence of this latter accident will be provided against r,ext summer by slating the floor, thus preventing ingress into the yards and hatching house. The result with the quail has been even more disastrous, a hen having been killed sitting on 16 eg£B. Fifteen pheasants have been liberated in the neighborhood of the ponds, and having been frequently seen, it is hoped they are increasing in number. The success of the experiment with the linseed, distributed in the early part of the spring, has not been as great as was anticipated, owing partly to the severity of the weather, and the longcontinued drought. It is believed that the seed sown in the Kiverton district will furnish the best return, but as yet only one return has been received from the cultivator. The seed distributed was obtained from Bouth Australia, the Siga seed, ordered from London, arriving too late lor use last season, but it will be ready for distribution during next spring. The plants grown from Californian tree seeds, given intoj the care of Mr Cooper, are ready for .distril ution to the members at a moderate price. The committee hope shortly to be able to note the introduction of snipe, having been in communication on the subject with a kindred society, the members of this Society being many of them of opinion that the introduction would prove a valuable acquisition. According to rule six, members of the late committee retired by effluxion of time, five of whom were re-elected, the place of Mr H. M'Culloch being filled by the election of Mr J. R. Cuthbertson. Mr "W. Wood was re-elected president, Mr C. Basstian vice-president, and Mr Edw. D. Butts hon. secretary and treasurer. In the vote of thanks by the meeting to the late office-bearers, special mention was made of the services rendered by Mr Butts, as having been in every respect the essential feature in the management "of the Society. Certain correspondence between the committee and the trustees of the Society was then laid before the meeting, and as it had become necessary by the departure of Mr M'Pherson to elect a trustee in his stead, considerable discussion arose as to the propriety of increasing the number of the trustees. Reference being made to the Act for regulating the proceedings of the Society in the matter of the intro- i duction ot "salmon and other useful fish," and the opinions of several of the members present having been expressed, it was held to be unadvisable to proceed with the election of a trustee or trustees that evening. This Act authorises the election by the members of a new trustee in the event of the departure of a trustee from the colony, and the vessel in which Mr M'Pherson had taken passage not having then sailed, and the written resignation by that gentleman of office not being in the hands of the meeting, an adjournment till this (Friday) evening was agreed upon.