CHILDREN OF THE CHURCH 271 



The universal spread of water-cress (Nasturtium officinale) 

 points also to early importation. As it is not a plant the frolicsome 

 sealer is likely to have burdened his memory with sailing for 

 New Zealand waters, the chances are that it also is of a missionary 

 origin. 1 



The manner of arrival of ryegrass (Lolium perenne) is still 

 another instance of that appreciation by early converts of mission 

 plants a proof, too, of the immense distances seeds were carried 

 by neophytes and scholars. Its collection, carriage, and subsequent 

 neglect are also typical at once of the mingled intelligence and 

 carelessness of the Maori character. Ripora, afterwards the mother 

 of my friend Tera, was as a girl educated at the Bay of Islands 

 Mission Station. She it was who first brought ryegrass to 

 Tangoio about '34 or '35. It had been gathered at Paihia either 

 from one of the newly - sown missionary fields, or saved from 

 plants that had already spread about the native quarters. Stowed 

 away safely during the overland march, guarded from sea-water 

 during the long canoe - voyage south ; on arrival neglected in 

 the whare at Tangoio, the cloth of the containing - bag torn by 

 mice, the once - treasured seed was finally flung out in forget- 

 fulness. There, falling on fertile soil, it germinated like the 

 barley and rice cast forth by Robinson Crusoe before the entrance 

 of his cave. The exact manner of its ultimate arrival at Tutira 

 can only be surmised, but probability points to the equine stomach. 

 Horses ridden from the one place to the other scattered it along the 

 trail and dropped it on the station. It is curious to think that this, 

 the most valuable grass in the province, should have reached Tutira 



1 There are no snakes in New Zealand, but water-cress stories seem in early times to have 

 been almost equally alluring. I hope I trust that none of those who wrote about the plant 

 to their friends in England were missionaries ; at any rate, the tradition of giant water-cress 

 in New Zealand yet lingers in the Old Country. Not once, but several times, at home I have 

 been commiserated with on the fact that our rivers in New Zealand were blocked by the 

 plant that inland navigation was hindered by its growth. On one occasion, when recover- 

 ing from typhoid, and under the care of a doctor whose forebears had been connected with 

 missionary enterprise, as I had foreseen and dreaded, condolences were offered about the plant 

 and the misfortune to the colony of its importation. At first I struggled to state the facts ; 

 but finally he was very insistent and positive, and I weak I let him go away in the belief 

 that its stems were larger than those of the British oak, and that if by chance a pair of moa 

 still lived they would infallibly choose to nest in a water-cress jungle. The truth is, that on 

 the Avon, and possibly elsewhere, small areas of water really were densely covered with a sud 

 of rootlets ; possibly, too, the navigation of small row-boats may have been in some degree 

 hindered over insignificant distances. 



