34 



world, a series of questions as to the various desirable natural 

 products of each country, and the Admiralty has issued a circular 

 to all commanders of H.M. ships, directing them to render every 

 service in their power to the cause of Acclimatisation, in the 

 conveyance of specimens. 



In almost every colony in these seas Acclimatisation Societies 

 have been founded, most of them paying that of Victoria the 

 compliment of taking it as their model ; and with Sydney, 

 Hobart Town, Adelaide, Brisbane, Auckland, Lyttleton, 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 statement 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 very nature of Acclimatisation, 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 contributed to the National Museum, from the 

 collection of the Society. 



The Council of the Society is composed of gentlemen who have 

 no personal object to serve. They attend the weekly meetings at 

 the cost of considerable 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 unprejudiced mind, to show how impolitic it 

 would be to allow their proceedings to be rashly or wantonly inter- 

 fered with, and to justify them in expressing a doubt whether any 

 other public money is as advantageously expended in regard to the 

 future as that portion with which they have been entrusted. 



From the very novelty of the project of systematic acclimatisa- 

 tion, and from the almost illimitable 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 stock this country with new, useful, and beautiful 

 things, to add to our national wealth, to suggest new forms for our 

 colonial industries, to provide for manly sports, which will lead the 

 Australian youth to seek their recreation on the river's bank and 

 mountain side rather than in the cafe 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 



