IMHHIT8. 97 



their introduction, so 1 may as well detail all the facts known to 

 me about their early history in New Zealand. 



According to the Rev. Richard Taylor, author of " Te Ika a 

 Maui," the early missionaries were the first to introduce rabbits 

 into the country; but, unfortunately, he gives no dates. If he 

 is correct, however, they were almost certainly brought from 

 Ne^j^South Wales to the far northern part of the colony between 

 1820 '^and 1830. They probably never increased to any great 

 extent* for, though there are rabbits in a few localities .north of 

 Whangarei (I will specify localities later), they are scarcely a pest 

 there. 



I am told that Jerningham Wakefield reported them as being 

 placed on Mana and Kapiti Islands, in Cook Strait, in 1840 or 

 1841, but I cannot find any verification of the record. The first 

 definite notice I have discovered is in Mr. Tuckett's diary of his 

 expedition to the South Island, which is printed as an appendix 

 to Dr. Hocken's " Contributions to the Early History of New Zea- 

 land." Speaking of the country between the mouths of the Clutha 

 and Mat-aura Rivers, Tuckett writes, under date the 19th May, 

 1944, " Palmer has grown wheat and barley as well as potatoes, 

 and has plenty of fine fowls and ducks and some goats. . . . 

 Returning from Tapuke [Taukupu], we landed on the island, and, 

 with the assistance of a capital beagle, caught six rabbits alive 

 and uninjured." He does not say whether any were liberated on 

 the mainland, nor whether it was possible for those on the island 

 to get ashore. 



Mr. James Begg, who has given me some very valuable infor- 

 mation as to the earliest attempts to introduce these animals, tells 

 me that " when Willsher and party settled at Port Molyneux in 

 the early ' forties ' they sent to Sydney for rabbits, but whether 

 they obtained them or not I am unable to say. From early days 

 there was at least one colony of rabbits on the upper Waitaki. 

 These remained quite local in their habits, and did not increase 

 to any great extent. They were finally overwhelmed by the invasion 

 of the grey rabbit from the south. The late Mr. Telford, of Clifton, 

 introduced some rabbits and bred them in hutches till they num- 

 bered about fifty. They were then liberated on Clifton, near the 

 banks of the Molyneux, but died out in a short time. This was 

 about the year 1864. Mr. Clapcott also liberated some at the old 



