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reply that can be made to them is, that every principal article of food, and also the material for our valuable exports, is the result of acclimatisation. But for the animal and vegetable products introduced into this colony, from its earliest formation, and by which means the later and now flourishing colonies have been supplied, we should have been, if existing, a mere nomade and scanty population; and instead of our thousands of wealthy people, there would have been a wandering, half-starved race, subsisting, like the aborigines, upon the produce of the chase, roots, and grubs, and clothed in opossum, squirrel, and kangaroo skins; for our turkeys, geese, ducks, fowls, our horses, cattle, sheep, goats, hogs, &c., are the results of acclimatisation, as also the importation of donkeys. The wheat, barley, and other cereals, our cabbages, turnips, carrots, and other esculent vegetables, as well as oranges, apples, pears, peaches, grapes (producing our variety of wines); indeed, all our fine fruits, and all our exports, are the result of the art of acclimatisation—to which the society in course of formation are desirous of adding other products, both of the animal and vegetable kingdom. valuable as material for manufacture, and increasing the quantity, quality, and variety of our food; for all the principal material for the necessities and luxuries of life obtained in this colony, are the result of acclimatisation. The Acclimatisation Society will be formed on the model of those of England and the Continent, as follows:—
- For the introduction, acclimatisation, and domestication of all useful animals, birds, fishes, insects, and vegetables, whether profitable or ornamental.
- The perfection, propagation, and hybridisation of races newly introduced or already domesticated.
- The spread of indigenous animals from parts of the colony where they are abundant to other localities where they are not known.
- The procuration, by purchase, gift, or exchange, of animals, &c., from foreign countries.
- The transmission of animals, &c., from the colony to various parts of the world, in exchange for others sent to the society.
- The holding of periodical meetings, the publication of reports and transactions, for the purpose of spreading knowledge of acclimatisation, and to inquire into the causes of success or failure.
