The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-19 00:00:00

TUE ACCLIMATIZATION SOCIETY OF VICTORIA.

Certain circumstances connected with the pass-
ing of the:vote for the Acclimatization Society have
led the Council to consider it desirable to state a
few facts relating to their performance of the duties
with which they have been charged.
The Estimates were laid upon the table of the
Assembly on Feb. 3, On the 4th sums amounting
to £1,408,515 were voted. Among other items was
that of £4,000 for the Acclimatization Society, the
granting of which was coupled with a condition
that £650 should be raised by private subscriptions.
From the responsibility of that condition the

Council have no desire to shrink, feeling well aware
that from the wide feeling of sympathy with their
efforts a demand can be met which might have been
fetal to almost any other institution receiving Go-
vernment aid.

The debate on the vote, and the condition accom-
panying it, however, have led the Council to believe
that their transactions are less fully understood than
they would wish them to be, and the rapidity with
which the Estimates were proceeded with took
them so far by surprise as to prevent them from
providing the Government with such statement of
their proceedings as would, they believe, have con-
vinced the Legislature not only that the money
voted was being well spent, but that no other pub•
lie money is being expended to better advantage.
The acclimatization, or, rather, the introduction
and assimilation to a new set of conditions, of every
good thing that the world contains to a country so
singularly adapted as Australia to a wide range of
products seems about as legitimate an enterprise as
can be conceived.

The gathering together in good condition, and in

sufficient numbers to establish the species, foreign
animals and plants is necessarily a very slow and
delicate process, and much time must obviously be
expended before very decided results can be ex-
pected. Most of these animals breed only once a
year, and their natural increase is therefore tardy,
however eminently they may prove themselves
adapted to their new home. But a brief outline of
what is being done will be found not altogether
barren of those results for the fuller elaboration of
which it is only reasonable to wait.

The inauguration of the Acclimatization Society
on its present footing is comparatively recent, as
less than three years have elapsed since it was
amalgamated with and undertook the duties of the
Zoological Committee.
Since then, in consequence of the increasing num-
ber of animals, and the unhealthiness of the original
site of the Zoological Gardens, an entirely new
establishment has had to be formed at the Royal
Park, involving a very heavy expenditure in fercing,
planting, forming excavations for ponds, building
superintendent's house, shelter sheds, pens, &e.
The herd of camels brought from India at an
expense of £l2O per head had become scattered,
and were in a fair way of being annihilated, under
the various exploratory expeditions. Such of them
as could be saved have been collected at Mr Wilson's
at the Wimmera, where they are now breeding re-
gularly, and forming the nucleus of probably a
large herd, available at some future day either for
exploration or conveying the produce of remoter
stations in the more arid districts.

The alpaca has been a constant source of interest
with the society. Mr Duffield has been constantly
advised with and encouraged in his great experi-
ment, and has stated that, but for the co-operative
spirit exhibited by the society, he should have pro-
bably transferred his energies to some other country.
Meantime, the little flock of llamas and hybrids im-
ported from England have been diligently cared for,
and their health and adaptation to the country
watched. They have been crossed with pure alpacas,
and young ones of the second cross are now being
dropped. Since landing their numbers have in-
creased from 19 to 56.

The Angora goat is receiving great attention, and
is likely to furnish a very valuable addition to the
resources of our graziers and of exports to our mer•
chants. A considerable number of the best strain
of blood has lately been presented by the Acelima.
tization Society of France. Pure bred goats are now
rapidly multiplying, and they are being crossed
with the common goat in considerable numbers,lfour
crosses being found to restore the original quality.
Associated with the society, an enterprising gen-

tleman at Maryborough has imported a flock of the
Cashmere goat, with which he is now experiment-
ing, affording an instance of the manner in which
the society is now executing one of its principal
functions, in inducing foreign enterprise to avail
itself of the information and organisation of the
society.

Various breeds of sheep have been introduced and
are being experimented with, some of them showing
signs of a peculiar adaptability to a hot climate.
While devoting this amount of attentien to such
animals as the camel, the alpaca, the Angora goat,
and the sheep, which may be considered as more
immediately interesting to the mercantile and pas-
toral classeti, the sportsman has not been forgotten.
The fallow deer, the Indian elk, the beautiful
spotted axis deer, have been successfully im-
ported, bred from, and turned loose at Wilson's
Promontory, the Wimmera, the Sugarloaf, and the
Bunyip. Numerous specimens of the hog deer of
India, a beautiful deer from Manilla, and another
from Formosa are still in the possession of the go-
ciety, with a view to their multiplication and
ultimate release, and fresh importations of the deer
tribe aro almost of weekly occurrence. _

The hare has been sent to the society by the
Zoo logical Society of London, and has been turned
out and r: row breeding freely on Phillip Island.
ti'aricna breeds of pheasants, partridges, grouse,
and quail have been introduced, and some ha ve been
liberated. Among those may be mentioned e
Californian quail, which has bred after being liber-
ated in the Botanical-gardens and Phillip Island,
and the Algeriue sand grouse, of which a considera-
ble number have been imported, and which from
their hardy nature and the similarity of their Otigi.
nal climate may be considered highly ad,pzec
1 to
this country.
The English wild duck has been imported, has
multiplied very freely, and now visits the lagoon at
the Botanical-gardens in nearly equal - numbers to
bred at the Royal Park,
the indigenousmwi toeors-ef ohwt‘j.
s
and promises to be thoroughly acclimatized.
The wild pea fowl of Ceylon has thriven and bred
in the charge of the cocioty, and can soon be set at
liberty.
The white swan has bet:u .introduced in consider'

But as illustrating by a small success the won-
derful results capable of attainment by acelimetise_
tion if adopted on a proper scale, the Council %said
refer to the fact of having introduced living speci-
mens of the sea fishes of Europe in the shape of the
gray mullet and the edible crab; not, indeed, in
numbers sufficient to justify a hope of establishing
the breed, but amply suggestive of what will be
done in the future.
In a country so subject as this to the ravages of
insects, the case of the agriculturist has also been
carefully considered. Hundreds of industrious
farmers have, even this year, been ruined by the
caterpillar, and similar :15t salr;ly
be expected. The introduction of insect-destroying
birds has therefore been carefully attended to and
with this has been combined an effort to surround
our colonial residences with those interesting asso-
ciations which constitute no slight portion of the
charms with which the name of " home" is ever
surrounded. The thrush, the blackbird, the skylark,
the starling, the chaffinch, the sparrow, the Chinese
sparrow, the Java sparrow, and a most active and
interesting bird, the Indian wino, may now be
considered thoroughly established, and are rapidly
extending by natural means through the colony.
The goldfinch, the linnet, the greenfinch, the yellow
hammer, the ortolan, the canary, the robin, and
many kinds of the smaller birds of other countries
are being accumulated in the aviaries of the society,
and many of them have already bred there.
The nightingale and the hedge sparrow have been
promised us by benevolent ladies at home, and the
Queen herself has made an effort to supply us with
the rook. To other liberal friends of the cause we
are indebted for promises of the gazelle and the
edible crab.
As a contribution of very particular interest to
the cottager, the introduction of the Ligurian bee
may be adduced, that insect being probably, from
its industrious and wonderfully prolific properties,
the most valuable in the world. This bee is multi-
plying with almost incredible rapidity, and will
soon be accessible to all classes.
A widely-extended correspondence and a system
of kindly interchange are knitting us in interesting
relations with kindred societies in all parts of the
world; and to gentlemen in England, France, India,
Ceylon, and China the society is, in particular,
under deep obligations.
The very great distances at which the operations
of the society have to be carried on, and the diffi-
culty of getting placed in communication with the
right class of persons and institutions calculated
to aid the enterprise, should argue in favour of a
steady persistence of effort, protracted over many
years, and should show the false policy of any ill,
considered interruption of a great national scheme.
The British Government has recently been in-
duced to take up the project of acclimatization with
an amount of consideration altogether without pre-
cedent, the Foreign and Colonial-offices having
recently sent to British emissaries in all countries
in the world a series of questions as to the various
desirable natural products of each country, and, thu
Admiralty has issued a oil cular to all commanders
of her Majesty's ships, directing them to render
every service in their power to the cause of aced-
matizatiou in the conveyance of specimens.
In almost every colony in these seas acclimatiza-
tion societies have been foundod.,most of them pay-
ing that of Victoria the compliment of taking it KS
their model, and with Sydney, Hobart Town, Me-
laid, Brisbane, Auckland, Lyttelton, and Dunedin,
the Melbourne Society is thus brought into friendly
and frequent communication. A French man-of-
war is at the time of the preparation of this state.,
ment engaged in bringing the society specimens of
the yak, the ostrich, and other animals.
There is something so attractive, and at the same
time so novel, in the nature of acclimatization, that
paragraphs referring to the proceedings of the
society attain a circulation more general than
almost any other subject in English and foreign
newspapers, and such notices are calculated greatly
to interest strangers in the progress of the colony.
Even the very disasters and deaths inseparable from
this kind of experiment are not without their uses,
as many interesting specimens have been contri.
bated to the National Museum from the collection
of the society.
The Council of the society sa composed of gentle-
men who have no personal object to serve. They
attend the weekly meetings at the cost of consider-
able valuable time taken from their business hours,
and the reports of their meetings will show that
the attendance is such as no other non-commercial
body in the colony can boast of.
The Council think that in this brief enumeration
of facts they may consider that results' have been
obtained sufficient to carry conviction to any un.
prejudiced mind to show how impolitic it would be
to allow their proceedings to be rashly or wantonly
interfered with, and to justify them in expressing a
doubt whether any other public money is as advan-
tageously expended in regard to the future as that
portion with which they have been intrusted. •
From the very novelty of the project of syste•
matic acclimatisation, and from the almost illimit-
able range of the objects with which it seeks to
deal, a fertile topic is afforded to the sneers of the
thoughtless and the misrepresentations of the ill'
informed. But in seeking to stook this
with new, useful, and beaatiful
forms for our
gB, to add to
our national wealth, to suggest new _ country
colonial industries, to provide for manly sports
which willead the Australian youth to seek their
recreation on the river's bank and mountain side
rather than in the café and casino, to surround
every homestead and the path of every wayfarer
with new forms of interest and beauty, and to add
new elements to the food of the entire people, the
Council conceive that they are engaged in a work
sufficiently noble to secure the sympathies of every
And of parents, in
good man. particular, they
would ask, what may not be made of this fine colony
when the seed this society is now diligently seeking
to sow shall have bad time to fructify in a complete
harvest ?"

THE MACKAY GREAT GllN.—This gun was again
tested' on the Crossly Sands, near Liverpool, yesterday,
with great success. The shots passed twice through a sec-
tion of the side of the iron plated rain Agincourt; and on
being tested for range with a charge of 301 b, of powder,
ntde the first graze at a distance of 4,500 yards, which is,
we understand, a satisfactory proof of the value of the gun.
The Gazette de France says :—"
Our ietztrs
direct from Rome, written by persons who are perfectly
well-informed on the subject, state that the Popo has tow
recovered, and is in good health."

A MAN DECAPITATED ON A EAILWAY,.--An 11.
quest which was not concluded until a late hour on
Tuesday night, was held before Mr. W. Carter, coroner for
East Surrey, at the Wandsworth and Battersea -Union on
thebody of
byS an engine on the line near the Batterseatephen Largent, aged 36, who was horribly
mutilitated
Park Station of the Brighton Railway. On Sunday after-
noon, about four o'clock, the deceased was prooeeding
struck him with tremendous force. Ile was found with his
along the lino towards London, when an engine and tender
head and one arm completeiy severed from his body. It
was shown that the deceased, who was a respectable
mechanic, had doubtless gone on to the line to seek for
groundsel and cotton waste, some of which were found in
his pockets. The Coroner having summed up, the jury
returned verdict of Accidental Death,