HATS. 85 



with iniro and other berries. If these roads were crooked, they 

 said, the rats ran into the forest at the bends. They fed entirely 

 on vegetable matter, and were greatly prized as food by the Natives, 

 who also extracted much oil from them. 



The native rat quickly disappeared before other rats and also 

 cats; it was extremely rare thirty or forty years ago, and is pro- 

 bably quite extinct now. As, however, the species is common in 

 Polynesia, occasional immigrants may arrive in New Zealand from 

 time to time. The popular belief among both Maoris and 

 Europeans was that it was exterminated by the Norway rat (Mus 

 decumanus). It is, however, probable that the latter is a more 

 recent immigrant than the old European black rat, which is still 

 an extremely common animal here. That the Maori rat was once 

 very abundant seems to be proved by the fact that the Natives 

 always erected their storehouses for food on various kinds of piles 

 as a protection against the depredations of these animals. This 

 habit, according to Judge Maning (" Pakeha Maori "), was the 

 custom before Europeans landed in the country. 



Tancred, writing of Canterbury in 1856, says, " The native rat 

 forms numerous burrows, rendering the soil unsafe for a horse." 

 He also repeats the statement about its being exterminated by 

 that formidable invader the Norway rat. Mr. W. T. L. Travers, 

 writing in 1869, says, " It has been the fashion to assume that 

 before the arrival of Europeans in this colony this creature [the 

 native rat] was common, and to attribute its destruction to the 

 European rat; and, indeed, the Natives have been credited with 

 a proverb in relation to this point. It is not in effect impossible 

 that the ultimate destruction of those which still existed when trade 

 was first opened between Europeans and the Natives, long after 

 the colonization of New Zealand, may have been hastened by the 

 introduction of the European rat; but I am satisfied that before 

 that time they had become very scarce, and, indeed, I have been 

 told by gentlemen who have lived in the northern part of this 

 [the South] Island for upwards of forty years that they never saw 

 a specimen." 



Speaking of Nelson in 1842, Judge Broad said, " Native rats 

 were an intolerable nuisance; they ate everything, ran about the 

 houses in the dark, and had no fear of man. They drove the cats 

 away, and only disappeared . when rat-killing dogs were intro- 



