Walsh. — On the FuHire of the New Zealand Biish. 477 



hakeas. The willows have mostly originated from trees 

 planted with a view (genei'ally mistaken) of retaining the banks 

 of rivers running through alluvial country. From these broken 

 pieces are carried down by the freshes, and quickly take rooc, 

 forming continuous groves along the margin, and frequently 

 islands in the bed of the stream. Hundreds of miles of 

 river-banks have been clothed in this way in many parts of 

 the country. So far the varieties have been confined to the 

 tall straight osier and the weeping willow ; and, although 

 others will doubtless be introduced from time to time, these 

 will probably hold their ground by reason of their large and 

 vigorous growth. The Australian wattles seem to have been 

 among the first plants imported into the colony. Several 

 species are found about most of the older settlements, where 

 they have flourished and increased as the native bush has 

 died away. The furze, originally used as a hedge plant, and 

 the sweet-briar, probably intended only as an ornamental 

 shrub, have also come to stay, and in many places have taken 

 complete possession of the country, so much so, in fact, as to 

 considerably depreciate the land-value. The common bramble 

 has made an unwelcome appearance in the bush districts 

 north of Auckland, where it threatens to become such a 

 nuisance that the various agricultural societies have already 

 been trving to devise means for its eradication. And in 

 several spots between the Bay of Islands and Whangaroa the 

 hakea is spreading rapidly among the fern and tea-tree, and 

 forming an impenetrable thicket wherever its winged seeds 

 light on a patch of burnt ground. The foreign element has 

 already added a new feature to the forest flora of the country, 

 which will be ii:ore and more conspicuous as the present 

 species spread further afield, and as new ones are introduced. 



7. Future DimimUion of Fires. 



For a long time to come the fires will overrun the country 

 more or less every dry season, but after a while they will 

 gradually decrease, both in extent and destructiveness. 



The area of bush land available for settlement is limited ; 

 and after the dead timber has been consumed, and the country 

 reduced to cultivation, there will be nothing to carry the flames 

 over a wide extent. We may therefore confidently hope that 

 in a few years such terrible conflagrations as have lately over- 

 spread whole provinces will be things of the past, and that the 

 fires that do occur will be comparatively small and local. 



The same thing will happen, though much more slowly, on 

 the large areas of open land now covered with fern or tea-tree. 

 As the cattle and sheep find their way over the run the sur- 

 face growth is consumed or trodden down to some extent, and 

 grass springs up from the seed carried in their droppings. It 



