now stands, for the cultivation of wheat for certain Sydney mills. About 30 acres were grown, but the place was abandoned soon after on account of rats, difficulties of shipment, and fires.

In 1842 Captain Wm Mein Smith, chief surveyor of the Wellington Land Company, visited the south-east of Otago, and writes of one settlement there as follows:

At Tautuku Bay (30 miles from Molyneux River) is a good deal of land cultivated by a number of industrious men who are, through the winter, engaged in the whale fishery. In the summer they are occupied in their gardens. They produce abundance of fine potatoes, and as much wheat and barley as they can consume. They have many pigs, goats, and a rapidly increasing stock of poultry.

It is quite probable that several of the European weeds of cultivation which are now so common in the south end of New Zealand were introduced in these days of early and casual settlement. But few animals would be thus brought in, except perhaps certain flies and other domestic insects, and perhaps some worms, wood-lice and such familiar accompaniments of human settlement.

Turning to the north of New Zealand, though the visitation was greater, the record has not been worked out so thoroughly as for the south. But from the end of the 18th century greater numbers of vessels visited northern ports for the whale fishery. Captain King, Governor of New South Wales, had landed in the Bay of Islands in 1793, and gave the natives some pigs, as well as wheat, maize, and no doubt other things not mentioned. The Rev. Samuel Marsden sent them wheat in 1810, and a further lot in 1811. When he visited the island in 1814, he brought with him the mission party, which was established at Kerikeri and Waimate near the Bay of Islands, and the live stock accompanying the party included one entire horse, two mares, one bull and two cows, with a few sheep and poultry. From this date onwards there is no doubt numerous introductions of plants and animals were made. In 1822 the Wesleyan Mission station at Kaeo-Wangaroa was established, but the party were driven out of there and shifted their ground to Hokianga. The occurrence of exotic historic trees of great size at the present day in these regions testifies to the activity of the missionaries as pioneers in this work of introducing new forms of life in the country. Then too, the quantity of flax, potatoes and other produce, exported from New Zealand and supplied to ships in these pre-settlement days, was very great, and this shows that there must have been much trade and intercommunication between the natives and the Europeans. Numbers of weeds and of animals must have been introduced into the north in this way. About 1826 the 'Rosanna' (already mentioned) with some

60 settlers on board, came into Hokianga with the intention of founding a settlement, but as a tribal war was being waged among the natives at the time, the party did not remain, but went off and landed at Sydney.

As I am not writing a history of New Zealand except in so far as it relates to the facilities which existed for the introduction of new forms of animal and plant life into the country, I must hurriedly pass over these pre-settlement days, merely pointing out that a great deal of communication must have been going on with outside ports from many parts of the country. The township of Russell or Kororareka in the Bay of Islands, was founded in 1830 by Benjamin Turner, an ex-Sydney convict, who built the first grog-shop there. Two years later the population numbered about 100, and in 1838 about 1000. "As many as thirty-six whalers were anchored there at one time, and in one year 120 vessels sailed in and out."

The first regular settlement scheme commenced in 1839 when the 'Tory' with Captain Wakefield, Dr Dieffenbach, and others, arrived in Port Nicolson, and after trying a site for a town near Petone, founded what is now Wellington. Early in the following year the immigrant ships began to arrive, and by the end of 1840 the population of Wellington numbered about 1100 persons.

The first official capital of New Zealand was Kororareka or Russell, but the seat of government was shifted to the Waitemata, and Captain Hobson selected the site of the future town there, which he called "Auckland," in September, 1840. The same year saw the commencement of the Taranaki settlement, and by the end of 1841, the population of New Plymouth numbered some 500 persons. In 1841 Nelson was founded, and in January and October of 1842, four vessels with some 850 passengers arrived in Nelson harbour. In 1848 the Otago settlement was founded and 278 immigrants were landed on the site of Dunedin. In 1843 the Deans brothers settled near the present site of Christchurch, but it was not till the close of 1850 that the pioneers of the Canterbury settlement, numbering 800 souls, landed in Port Cooper.

In the First Annual Report (for 1843) of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of Auckland it is stated that the following trees were then in cultivation: peaches, nectarines, apricots, almonds, figs, lemons, oranges, olives, vines, plums, cherries, mulberries, pears, apples, quinces, walnuts, filberts, loquats, gooseberries, red and black currants, raspberries and strawberries; the Cape gooseberry (Physalis edulis) is said to be "almost indigenous; it grows wild in every part of the country."

In those early days of settlement voyages between Great Britain

and the colony were long, extending from three to five months, and it must have been difficult to convey many animals on board the small ships which were the only carriers. But the immigrants occasionally brought out pets, especially cats and dogs, with probably fowls, pigeons, rabbits, canaries and other song birds. Certainly also they introduced most of the common weeds, such as chickweeds, thistles, groundsel, and others. I have more than once observed the plants which have grown up round a heap of ashes and rubbish where immigrants' old bedding and refuse were burned, and only regret now that I did not keep a record of the species at the time.

For several years the settlers were too busy founding homes and bringing their land into cultivation to attend much to any but the most essential things; but after about a score of years had passed, and there was time for leisure and reminiscence, new ideas came to them, or perhaps it is more correct to say, original ideas re-asserted themselves as they seemed to be capable of realisation.

The beginning of the rush of immigration dates from between 1840 and 1850, and the process has been continued with more or less intermission ever since. But in a general sketch of the subject of animal and plant introduction, we need not concern ourselves further as to dates; these will be given as far as possible in the case of each individual species. Here we are concerned only with the general result and its causes.

The early settlers of New Zealand found themselves in a land which, as far as regards climate and natural conditions, seemed to them to reproduce many of the best features of the homeland from which they came. They thought with affection and with the glamour of youthful remembrance of the lakes and rivers, the woods and the fields, the hills and the dells of that homeland. They recalled the sport which was forbidden to all but a favoured few, but which they had often longed to share in the game preserves, the deer on the mountains or in the parks, the grouse on the heather-clad hills, the pheasants in the copses and plantations, the hares and partridges in the stubbles and turnip fields, the rabbits in the hedgerows and sandy warrens, and the salmon of forbidden price in their rivers-and there rose up before their vision a land where all these desirable things might be found and enjoyed. Their thoughts went back to the days when they guddled the spotted trout from under the stones of the burns and brooks, to the song birds which charmed their youthful ears, to the flowers and trees which delighted the eye. They recalled the pleasant memories of hours passed on the hills and in the woods of their beloved native land. Here, in a land of plenty, with few wild animals, few flowers apparently, and no associations, with streams

almost destitute of fish, with shy song birds and few game birds, and certainly no quadrupeds but lizards, it seemed to them that it only wanted the best of the plants and animals associated with these earlier memories to make it a terrestrial paradise. So with zeal unfettered by scientific knowledge, they proceeded to endeavour to reproduce as far as possible- the best-remembered and most cherished features of the country from which they came. No doubt some utilitarian ideas were mingled with those of romance and early associations, but the latter were in the ascendant. They recked not of new conditions, they knew nothing of the possibilities of development possessed by species of plants and animals which, in the severe struggle for existence of their northern home had reached a more or less stable position.

This wonderful wave of sentiment manifested itself especially in the sixties. From Auckland to the Bluff the people founded acclimatisation societies for the purpose of introducing what seemed to them desirable animals, and they allowed their fancy free play. In their private capacities they got their friends at home to send them seeds of the wild flowers they had loved, and they sowed these in all sorts of localities, wherever it seemed to them that they would grow. No biological considerations ever disturbed their dreams, nor indeed did they ever enter into their calculations. I have been on the council of an acclimatisation society, and I know the enthusiasm, unalloyed by scientific considerations, which animates the members. As far as flowering plants were concerned disappointment followed many of their efforts; the primroses and bluebells, the heather and the wood violets, refused to grow either in the bush or in the open country, and the sowers were frankly disappointed. Even when the seed was sown in the garden or the greenhouse and the plants were put out in the open, they would not reproduce their kind. Most of these early colonists recked not of such things as cross- and selffertilisation, and those who did know were not prepared to recommend an insect invasion to secure the fertilisation of their favourite wild flowers.

In time some of the plants and animals which had been introduced not only established themselves securely, but increased at a rate which upset all calculations. Conditions were produced which had never been anticipated and the introductions became dangerous and expensive pests. Then public measures had to be taken to check the newcomers, and in some cases their natural enemies had to be introduced. This has led to further complication and unexpected results. These natural enemies, like the things they were meant to check, did not always do what was expected of them; they frequently

failed to achieve the purpose for which they were introduced, and took to destroying things which it was desirable should be preserved. Legislation had to be resorted to in order to destroy some introduced things and to protect others. Noxious Weeds Act, Animal Protection Acts, Injurious Birds Acts, and so on, have been passed into law, together with countless Regulations and Orders in Council dealing with the same subject in its multifarious aspects. By way of commentary and satire on the whole business, the Government in many cases is itself the chief offender against the laws of its own making.

At the close of nearly 150 years since Cook first visited these shores, the country has not yet realised the necessity of a scientific treatment of the whole question of naturalisation. Species are still being introduced. In nearly every case now it is claimed that this is done for beneficent purposes, but the same argument justified the early settlers who introduced insectivorous birds to eat up the caterpillars which were destroying their grain crops, no doubt also the sheep farmers who helped to bring in stoats and weasels to enable them to grow wool and mutton, instead of rabbits. There is still no general principle underlying the work, and not sufficient knowledge of the possibilities of each problem.