4 MUTTON BIRDS 



inevitable in the settlement of a new country. 

 It is the price paid for the displacement of the 

 thistle and thorn in favour of the vine and the 

 fig tree, but although thus thinned in regard to 

 numbers it does not follow that the species itself 

 need become extinct, and if we save the species 

 we save all. Sternly, therefore, repressing all 

 sentiment and recognising that the chief end of 

 man, or at any rate man in such close proximity 

 to the millions of the yellow races, is to populate 

 his native land, let us examine the chances of 

 our surviving birds. If it can be proved that 

 we can in no way lose by their preservation, 

 if it can be shewn that not one acre fit for settle- 

 ment need be withheld then, indeed, care- 

 lessness becomes worse than carelessness. It 

 becomes a disgraceful apathy, and a reproach to 

 every intelligent man in New Zealand. 



It can be proved. 



It is an easy, if not amiable task to point 

 out mistakes; and, though we now deplore 

 the lack of foresight displayed in the importation 

 of vermin, yet at the time it was scarcely sur- 

 prising in the face of the plague of rabbits and 

 the threatened ruin of a great industry. It was 

 useless, of course, but men hard-pressed will 

 seize upon any weapon to defend themselves. 

 Twent}r-five years ago much might have been 

 written as to the perpetual and enduring nature 

 of the disaster consequent on this importation of 

 pole-cat, ferret, stoat, and weasel ; it is scarcely 

 possible, I think, to do that now-a-days. Now-a- 

 days we can but regret that the acclimatisation 

 and spread of these animals has accelerated a 

 destruction of bird life that on the main-land 

 nothing could ultimately prevent. Twenty-five 



