30 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



means sooner or later the disappearance of the aboriginal. The 

 quaint flora and fauna of New Zealand seem unable to hold their 

 own against the introduced plants and animals, and are gradually 

 becoming pushed into narrower and narrower limits. The life of 

 New Zealand is a life belonging to an earlier geological time than 

 that of Europe, and it seems to possess a lower power of 

 resistance than the more hardy denizens of older lands, and so 

 it, as it were, slips timidly away before the strange intruders. 

 The Maori himself is made of sterner stuff, but the law seems 

 irresistible, and, like the gentle wingless Kiwi of his native land, 

 he must gradually succumb to the pressure of the presence of 

 the fokelia. The Moa is dead, the Kiwi, the Tautara, the 

 Kakajjo, and other unique forms of New Zealand life are fast 

 disappearing, and after a time the Maori will have followed them 

 into the great silence, while the teeming race of the pakeha 

 intruder will have overrun his land. 



The Surrey Hills (Victoria) Field Club, — This club, 

 which has been established by a few enthusiasts for directing the 

 attention of the young people of one of our suburbs to natural 

 history, held an encampment at Eastertide, at Point Cook, Port 

 Phillip Bay, when ten members went under canvas and employed 

 about a week in collecting excursions, &c., in the neighbourhood. 

 Their records include twenty-six species of birds and six of fish, with 

 numerous other marine objects. Botany is poorly represented, 

 but the locality is known to be deficient in plant life. The club 

 holds monthly meetings for the reading of papers, lecturettes, 

 and exhibitions of specimens, when, judging from a recent 

 experience, enthusiastic audiences assemble and queer objects are 

 brought for identification. We trust this example will be followed 

 in other districts, and so help to foster a love of nature among 

 the young. 



The Field Naturalists' Society of New South Wales. — 

 The third annual exhibition of this society was held on the 

 evenings of 5th, 6th, and 7th April, when, judging from the list 

 of exhibits to hand, there must have been a goodly show of 

 Nature's workmanship, the list containing the names of sixty 

 exhibitors. During the evenings exhibitions of microscopic 

 objects with the aid of the oxyhydrogen microscope took place, 

 and illustrated lecturettes, entitled "By the Sea," "In the National 

 Park," and " Natural Curiosities," were delivered. 



Mr. C. French, F.L.S., Entomologist to the Department of 

 Agriculture, Victoria, has been elected an hon. member of the 

 Field Naturalists' Society of New South Wales, and also of the 

 Boys' Field Club, Adelaide. 



