32G 



Art. LXVII. — On the Changes effected in the Natural Features, of a New 

 Country hy the Introduction of Civilized Races. By W. T. L. Tkavers, F.L.S. 



(part hi.) 



[Abstract of Lecture delivered at the Colojiial Museum, Wellington, August 21, 1870.] 



After shortly recapitulating the points noticed in his two former lectures, 

 printed in Yol. ii. of the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute, the 

 lecturer proceeded as follows : — 



When left to themselves, the natural forces which regulate organic life tend 

 to counterbalance each other, and all life is by degrees bi'ought to a condition 

 of nice equilibrium, check and countercheck being most admirably applied. 

 But the direction of these forces is changed, and the equilibrium arrived at 

 disturbed, with more or less violence, when man appears as an actor in the 

 scene, the amount of disturbance being, as I have already shown, affected 

 chiefly by the character in which he appears, and usually being greater in 

 proportion to his own advance in civilization. 



These islands, indeed, afford us a most pregnant instance of my views on 

 this point, as I now propose to show by reference to what has already occurred 

 and what is constantly taking place under our own eyes, in the direction of 

 modifying and displacing the life native to the soil. Let it be remembered, 

 in this connection, that when civilized man transplants himself to a new 

 country he cari-ies with him a special knowledge of the value of a certain number 

 of oi'ganisms, which have been gradually brought into subservience to his 

 wants in the country which he formerly inhabited, whilst, in all probability, he 

 is absolutely, or at least greatly, ignorant of the uses or value of the natural 

 productions of his newly-adopted home. Moreover, his own necessities demand 

 that he should, without any delay, introduce such of the productions of his 

 former home as are most suited to his wants and offer the best prospects of 

 succeeding in his new country, having regard to its climate and soil. He has 

 at this period of active settlement no time to study the value or character of 

 the oi'ganic life which he finds there, and accordingly he proceeds at once to 

 bring land under cultivation, to sow it with the seeds of plants previously 

 foreign to the soil, and to introduce such domestic animals as are most useful 

 to him, either in the way of food or for purposes of labour. 



In the struggle which he is thenceforth destined to carry on as a colonist, 

 he becomes, as a rule, more and more careless of the native pi-oductions, 

 unless they present some prospect of being immediately and directly profitable. 

 The native timber is used for building and fencing, and in some few instances 

 becomes an article of commerce ; but, as a rule, the forest stands in the way, 

 and is recklessly and improvidently burnt or otherwise destroyed, without 

 regard either to the immediate effects which such destruction may produce 



