The Acclimatised Pest.

It is just about time that some restraining hand was placed on those enthusiastic acclimatisation folk who are forever craving to make New Zealand a replica of other lands in the matter of wild life. There is scarcely an introduced animal that has not developed into a nuisance and a source of positive injury to the native forests and native bird life. Deer are the biggest; goats run them a close second; then come the stoat and the weasel, and the opossum, over which so much controversy has raged, must also be included in the list of undesirables. Our native life comes first, and anything that tends to reduce the food supplies for the birds whose existence is bound up with our forests, must be classed as a pest and a peril.

The fact that some trappers make a living from the wily 'possum is no more valid an argument than the fact that a lot of people profit from the rabbit.

There are some queer enthusiasts who would like to see American beaver in our Southern forest streams, and one game hunter who had been to Canada advocated not long ago the introduction of the silver fox as a splendidly profitable bush habitant. An Australian told the present writer that he didn't see why New Zealanders should be so scared of the snake family. He thought the Aussie carpet snake would be a capital addition to farmhouse life; it was “quite harmless,” and it kept the place clear of rats and mice. None for our selection, thanks!