[page 12]

RESULTS OF ACCLIMATISATION IN NEW ZEALAND.

SOME months past an article appeared in our papers, expressing a desire to know what had been done in the way of acclimatisation in New Zealand. I believe it was taken. from your valuable paper LAND AND WATER. I should have answered it before, but have been away for some months collecting birds, fish, ova, and animals in Victoria and Tasmania. Having now returned after a most successful trip, I will do my best to give you all the information in my power. In the first place I must tell you that we have been working with very limited means, our funds never having exceeded the sum of £350 per annum since the formation of the society some six years ago. Of deer we have the red and fallow. The former, a stag and two hinds, were presented to the province of Nelson by Lord Petre some eight years ago. They now amount to upwards of fifty full grown ones, besides their fawns. They are to be seen almost every day within a mile of the town, on the hills on which they were first turned loose. The fallow deer have also done very well, a buck and two does having been presented to the province by C. B. Wither, Esq. The buck, a few months after they were liberated, was shot. Fortunately, it was discovered in time, and we were able through the kindness of his Excellency Governor Gore Browne to get two bucks and four does from Tasmania which we turned out as near the others as possible. The last accounts are that about thirty have been seen. Pheasants were first introduced into the province of Nelson by Sir Edmund Dashwood, Bart., some fourteen years ago. They were of the English species, and since then we have distributed the Chinese, so that you may now find them up almost every gully. Californian quail have also been breeding for some years, and we are now getting them well spread over the country. Hares and partridges we are in great want of, but we hope before many months are over our heads to receive a shipment from England, as we have sent home funds for that purpose and we also give a free passage to a person to look after them on the voyage.

During my visit to Melbourne the council of the Acclimatisation Society kindly presented us with a brace of hares, which I was fortunate in conveying in safety to Nelson. I believe the French partridge would do best out here in our province, as we have more uncultivated hills than arable land, and I have no doubt the black game would also do well. Of the English birds we possess starlings, blackbirds, thrushes, skylarks, greenfinches, chaffinches, and goldfinches, and most of the smaller birds, except the English robin. We have also the canary breeding wild and doing very well, and we have likewise one pair of English rooks-the only pair in the southern hemisphere, I believe. Of fish, last summer we introduced 500 of the Prussian carp, and I have now just returned from Tasmania with 1,000 ova of the brown trout, which I placed in my hatching ponds, and I am happy to say there cannot be less than 800 lively young fry, thanks to Mr. Buckland's valuable little work on pisciculture. Mr. Morton Allport also presented me with 27 live perch, 22 of which I turned into our waters on my return, having only lost five, two from being badly hooked, and three from their being unable to deposit their ova. The plan I adopted for my live fish was this, I had a circular galvanised iron tank 2ft. high 20in. in diameter, with an American rotating churn soldered in the centre, with four stays from the sides to keep it fixed firmly. Whenever I saw the fish appear at the top of the water I gave a few up and down strokes with the dasher, and it immediately revived them. Should you at any time be removing live fish you will find this churn most useful. I also brought over a few tench, but it being mid-winter they found great difficulty in catching them. My brown trout ova I had placed in two boxes, seven by nine inches, well but lightly packed in clean moss. These two boxes I had placed in a larger one, allowing a space of two inches between the boxes and all round them, which space was well packed with clean moss. About two inches above the boxes I had the lid of the large box made to rest on two ledges, which formed a tray of about three inches in depth. This tray was well perforated with holes, as also the bottom of the box, and on it I placed my ice, which as it thawed kept the moss moist. I had india-rubber bands to suspend it with, fastened from each corner and uniting in the centre, but I found out a better and more simple contrivance before I left Melbourne—viz. I had a truss of oaten hay for my Angora goats, and it struck me if I lashed it to a stanchion on the centre of the poop, with the ends of the straw placed up and down, just the reverse to the way it laid in the stake, the water that ran from the box would find its way through the truss, and prevent its losing its elasticity, and it would deaden all the vibration of the steamer's [illeg] I found it

[page] 13

act admirably and I had no trouble with it, as it was as good as a table, and I could look to see how the ice stood and replenish it at my ease. The ova were taken out of the water on the 10th of August and were placed by me in my ponds on the 29th of the same month, having been nearly three weeks out of their native clement, and most of them looked as fresh as they did on the day of my departure from Tasmania. I had to keep them one week in Melbourne as no ship was laid on for Nelson before that time. I also brought over five Angora goats, one pure-bred buck, and four halfbred ewes. We have also numbers of the black swan, and Australian magpies acclimatised. In the North Island they have acclimatisation societies at the following places—viz. Auckland, Wellington, and Wanganui, ; in the middle Island we have Nelson, Christchurch, Dunedin, and Invercargill, and they propose to form one at Hokietika on the west coast.

F. HUDDLESTON (Hon Sec.)

Frank Buckland, Esq., Inspector of Fisheries, London.