ACCLIMATISATION. 
By Hon. Walter Kingsmill, B.A., President of the Legislative 
Council 
(Bead 8th October , 1918.) 
For the purposes of definition, acclimatisation may he divided 
into two heads — domestication and naturalisation. In the few re- 
marks I have to make, my principal references will be to the latter 
division. Combining the two, it is sufficient to say that in the his- 
tory of mankind there has been no more potent factor towards civili- 
sation and progress' than the inherent tendency in man to surround 
himself, wherever he may go, with the plants or animals to which 
he has been accustomed in his country of origin. It is, therefore, 
naturally to be expected that England — the wanderer, the Ulysses 
amongst nations — has played a most important part in spreading 
throughout the world the various products of the vegetable and ani- 
mal kingdoms which her sons have used in their homeland. Always 
there is an effort made to create in the many countries beyond the 
seas to which their roaming tendencies have brought them — another 
England. 
This tendency, above referred to, whilst it has given to many 
countries of the world practically all that makes life worth living, does 
not always make for good, and through this strange development of 
home-sickness we have to-day in Australia rabbits, foxes, sparrows, 
starlings, thistles, and many more examples of this proclivity to 
consider a new home undesirable without the surroundings of the old. 
But, on the other hand, it may be said that in the (treater Brit- 
ain beyond the seas, Englishmen have brought with them to the land 
of their adoption nearly everything that has made that land a fitting 
home for them. Perhaps the most wonderful instance of the value 
and success of acclimatisation may be found in New Zealand. From 
the evidence at our disposal, it appears probable that some 600 years 
ago these lovely islands were without human inhabitants. Of mam- 
mals there are none; of reptiles very few. The fish in the rivers 
were confined to the members of a few insignificant and useless 
species. Birds, indeed, in ) leii-tv. Man first made his appearance 
from some of the South Sea Islands, bringing with him the dog’ and 
the. rat. Then came Cook, the circumnavigator, and released pigs, 
which there found their island home so much to their liking that 
they flourished exceedingly. 
With colonisation there were introduced deer, trout, and salmon, 
and to-day we see a land which, in comparatively recent historical 
time, was practically devoid of life, looked upon now as a sports- 
