UNGULATA 59 



The attempts made from time to time to acclimatise goats on 

 the out-lying Southern Islands are of interest. Captain Enderby 

 landed some on Enderby Island in 1850, and Captain Norman landed 

 them both on the Auckland and Enderby Islands in 1865, but none 

 appears to have survived. Cockayne says : " Two or three were landed 

 on Ewing Island in 1895, but none have been seen recently. On 

 Ocean Island, a very small island in the Auckland Group, goats are 

 numerous at the present time, but I have no details as to how they 

 got there." Captain Bollons writing me in February, 1916, speaks 

 also of the last-named island, and adds: 



Goats have been sent down from time to time to the Auckland Islands 

 since 1890, most of which have either died or been killed off for food 

 by castaways. At the Snares they were liberated about 1889, but soon 

 died off. At Campbell Island some were landed in 1888 and 1890, and 

 several were alive when the main island was taken up for a sheep run in 

 1896. At the Antipodes several were liberated between 1886 and 1900, 

 but were either used for food by the castaways or died off. 



Special breeds of Goats. In 1867 the Canterbury Society intro- 

 duced three Cashmere goats, but it is not stated what was done with 

 them. In the same year they introduced a pair of Angora goats, 

 and these commenced to breed at once. From a newspaper cutting 

 dated 1876, I find that "a flock of 120 Angora Goats on the Port 

 Hills (Lyttelton), chiefly descended from two pairs introduced into 

 New Zealand by the Melbourne Acclimatisation Society, has recently 

 been dispersed and sold." The Otago Society imported four in 1867, 

 and liberated them, but it is not stated where. The Auckland Society 

 in 1869 also imported a number, and sold them to a Mr Howick. 

 In addition to these, Angora goats were frequently introduced by 

 private individuals, and in some cases became wild. Mr Aston writes 

 (1916): "I hear that the Angora is hybridizing with the common 

 goat in some parts of Maryborough." In the report of the Agricultural 

 Department for 1903 it is stated: 



The original flock (of Angora Goats) imported from Victoria and South 

 Australia has now assumed considerable proportions, partly through the 

 natural increase and the purchase of nineteen grade nannies from Mr 

 Taylor White, of Wimbledon, Hawke's Bay. . . .The mob has been running 



at the Weraroa Experimental Station up till now The usual wire fence 



will not keep them in, consequently wire netting must be resorted to. . . . A 

 few of the ordinary goats, with a pure Angora billy, have been sent to the 

 natives in the Urewera Country, Bay of Plenty. If not allowed to run mid 

 they should in a few years become of some commercial value. 



No native fence will keep a goat in. The Angora goat is now being 

 bred in fairly large numbers especially in the Auckland province in 



