196 REPORT— 1891. 



to be generally discussed, and we can therefore look back with 

 some degree of certainty almost to the very commencement of 

 the introduction by human beings of foreign forms of life. As 

 far as European forms are concerned, we have the history of 

 the subject still almost within our grasp. Every year that 

 passes, however, makes it more difficult to pick up the ravelled 

 threads of the past, and it is at once the duty and the privilege 

 of the naturalist of to-day to place on record all the facts that 

 he can regarding the introduction and naturalisation of every 

 newly-imported form, so that those who at a later date take 

 up the same line of research may find the problem greatly 

 simplified. Even already, as we know, it frequently proves a 

 difficult matter to arrive at the truth regarding what is in- 

 digenous and what is introduced. "Witness, for example, the 

 discussion which is embalmed in the volumes of the New 

 Zealand Institute Transactions regarding the claims of Poly- 

 gonum avicnlare to rank as an indigenous species ; and we have 

 also seen Gypsopliila tuhnlosa appearing in Hooker's "Hand- 

 book to the New Zealand Flora" as indigenous, as lately as 

 1868. If such difficulties have arisen with regard to flowering 

 plants, which from the very discovery of the colony have been 

 objects of special attention to naturalists, and towards the 

 collection of which particular heed was given in the very first 

 English expedition w4aich came to these shores, w'hat is to be 

 said about groups of animals, such as insects, which have only 

 received close attention of late years, and what especially 

 about those groups of which representatives are known to 

 occur in these Islands, but regarding which our further know- 

 ledge is absolutely nil ? These considerations point to the 

 importance which attaches to all observations which may be 

 made on introduced forms, and ought to cause naturalists to 

 pay more attention to them than they receive at present. 



The remarkable facts that these Islands possess no truly 

 indigenous mammalia, very few song-birds and game-birds, 

 and a poor fresh-water fauna, have led to their being looked 

 upon as a suitable field for experiments in the naturalisation 

 of what are considered by the experimenters desirable types. 



Captain Cook started the process when he gave the Natives 

 pigs and various garden vegetables. The former soon became 

 wild in many parts, and have furnished rare sport to the early 

 settlers : the wild cabbage may still be found in abundance 

 near the site of many a Native village now forgotten. The 

 process of introducing new forms of life has been kept up 

 pretty continuously ever since the discovery of the Islands, 

 both publicly and privately. Missionaries, surveyors, and 

 settlers all have tried their hand at it, and perhaps the most 

 remarkable thing about such experiments has been the large 

 amount of failure which has accompanied them. The reasons 



