274 TCJTIRA 



far between, one row growing on the western edge of Waikopiro lake, 

 another on the south of the Taupunga peninsula ; three trees stood on 

 the wool-shed peninsula, three more on the little flat where the present 

 homestead has been built ; now there are hundreds round the lake itself, 

 and along the edges of the alluvial flats, planted chiefly by Harry Young, 

 Jack Young, George Whatley, T. J. Stuart, and myself. 



Sweet-briar (Rosa rubiginosa), "Missionary" as it is still called, 

 has been spread abroad by the horse. Though I could do so, it 

 would be wearisome to the reader were each plant located. It is 

 enough to say that in the 'eighties, between Petane, probably the 

 local starting-point of the plant and Tutira, bushes grew scattered at 

 long intervals. Many years later, long after the local extirpation of these 

 pioneers, the station was again invaded, plants appearing plentifully 

 on the Tutira-Heru-o-Tureia track. Grass seed packed from the station 

 was being sown on that distant block, where there was then no holding 

 paddock. The hungry horses fed about the old Maori briar -infested 

 cultivations, devouring amongst other rubbish quantities of red ripe 

 hips. Returning without loads and driven fast, their stomachs were 

 emptied throughout the "Wild Horse Country," "Nobbies," "Educa- 

 tional," "Second Range," "Dome," " Image," and "Natural Paddock." 

 Sweet-briar originally, therefore, reached the run from the south, but 

 later from the north-west. It has never spread so dangerously as 

 the bramble. The equine stomach is more expeditiously emptied ; as 

 no rider, moreover, during a journey would willingly allow his steed 

 to gorge on hips, each outlying bush has not served, as in the case of 

 the blackberry, for a fresh reservoir of replenishment. As its local 

 name " Missionary " implies, sweet-briar too is a child of the Church 

 of England. 



