File:Canterbury Acclimatisation Society minute book 1864 (26352472916).jpg

On 17 August 1861, the editorial of Christchurch’s Press newspaper detailed the formation in London of an Acclimatisation Society (based on an earlier French organisation), which was established to promote and organise the introduction of desirable exotic animal and plant species into England. The author argued that Canterbury settlers must follow suit, for:

‘There is perhaps no country in the world the natural zoology of which supplies so little to the subsistence or enjoyment of its inhabitants, as New Zealand.’

These comments certainly didn’t fall on deaf ears. From the early 1850s, many prominent Canterbury settlers, such as William Guise Brittan and John Cracroft Wilson, had already undertaken their own private acclimatisation activities, at considerable personal expense - and to almost no avail, with the several animal species that they had attempted to introduce from the ‘Old Country’ failing to survive in Canterbury. Clearly a more co-ordinated effort was required, and thus the Canterbury Horticultural and Acclimatisation Society (shortened to the Canterbury Acclimatisation Society by 1866) was duly formed on April 19 1864, and a governing Executive Council elected.

The Canterbury Provincial Government speedily agreed that a 1.6 hectare area of the Government Domain, between the river Avon and the Public Hospital, would be set aside as the Acclimatisation Grounds, to enable the Society sufficient space for the plant nurseries, fish ponds, animal enclosures and aviaries it would require in order to acclimatise and domesticate new species. At the Society’s hands, this land ultimately developed into the Botanic Gardens and a de facto zoo, where Christchurch’s citizens could stroll amongst all manner of bird life, and innumerable other species that the Society was cultivating, including deer, ferrets, llamas, goats, kanagaroos, and even a Californian bear!

The functions of the Society gradually evolved during the 19th century, from the introduction of all manner of exotic animal and plant species, to a focus on the propagation of recreational hunting and fishing species such as trout and salmon, and thence to an emphasis on management and control, habitat protection and research - including the conservation of native species.

Archives New Zealand’s Christchurch Regional Office holds a wealth of material from the Canterbury Acclimatisation Society, including meeting minutes and annual reports dating from the early 1860s to the late 1980s, and records detailing the Society’s activities from the many government agencies that it worked alongside over the years, until its incorporation into Fish and Game New Zealand in 1990. This image comes from the earliest book of Society minutes, and details the price per bird that the Society was willing to offer to any immigrant in 1864 who successfully arrived in Canterbury after the long ship voyage from London with a live example of a certain desirable species.