CoLENSO. — Bush Nules. 487 



places ; so that it seemed as if the army of industrious workers 

 had brought their spoils to that drier and softer spot, there to 

 labour and feast at their ease in the cold nights. No doubt, 

 to have seen and quietly observed them at work would have 

 proved an interesting sight, and given us a good lesson in 

 tlieir natural animal economy. Thinking over this subject 

 caused imagination to conceive some slight analogy between 

 (or, shall I say, the origin or cause of?) the humorous old 

 Maori legend of the night-adventures of the chief Te Kanawa 

 and the elves or fairies (jJatupaiareJie) in the forest, and this 

 real animal objective scene, in which quaint storj^ those 

 numerous little merry folks played with Te Kanawa, and used 

 him, much as the manikins of Lilliput did Gulliver. And so 

 that old legend might have originated from a dream of Te 

 Kanawa (who was sleeping on a dry mossy hillock in the 

 forest) after quietly witnessing the dexterous feats of the wood- 

 rats. 



And here I may mention that fifty years ago, before the 

 introduction of mice into this colony (or into the woody in- 

 terior), I had often noticed with astonishment in my travel- 

 ling through the forests the heaps of very hard, small, and 

 stony nuts (drupa) of the hinau-tree {Elceocarpus dentatus) 

 gnawed and perforated at their bases in a similar way, which 

 the old Maoris said was done by the Maori rat, which animal 

 we know once swarmed in those woods, and was fructivorous. 



The black-pine, or miro, is the scarcest of all the several 

 species of pines in our New Zealand woods, and its scarcity 

 may arise from its fruits being so eagerly sought for and de- 

 voured by those little animals. 



f^. O'l ihe Baplditij icUJi lohich' the Largest New Zealand 

 Trees are felled and converted into Timber for various 

 Uses. 



Probably few, if any, of my audience have had the oppor- 

 tunity of witnessing the whole operation of felling a large 

 timber-tree and cutting it up into planks and boards, as is 

 now being daily done in the timber-forests of New Zealand. 

 To those who have not seen this great, this truly wonderful 

 performance I would say, "Do so as early as convenient. It 

 will give you new thoughts, -exalted ideas of man's ever- 

 growing powers over Nature w]ie)i loorhincj in concert with 

 her." I will endeavour to give you in a few words an outline 

 of what I have seen here at Dannevirke, though in this 

 instance the best of words will prove wholly inadequate. 



First, however, two things are necessary — that is, for quick 

 work. The one is the erection, &c., of a steam saw-mill ; the 

 other, the formation of a tramway leading from the forest 

 where the big trees grow to the mill. A tree (say, a fine, 



