333 



suggestion of the rich auriferoixs deposits which have been since found upon 

 the Grey, and to the north and south of that river. On the contrary, he says 

 in his report that, " north of the Buller, in the Maruia, as Avell as in the 

 whole course of the Grey and its tributaries, rarely leaving untried any spot 

 which seemed likely, we searched in vain, unable to detect the least sign of 

 the precious metal." 



In 1864, reports which had for some time been current as to the existence 

 of gold in payable quantities in the country to the south of the Grey River, 

 wei-e pi-oved to be correct, and shortly afterwards the district in question was 

 "rushed " by an immense body of miners from all parts of ISTew Zealand and 

 Australia. In the course of a very short time towns sprung up, and a great 

 trade was carried on at various points of the coast, but chiefly at Hokitika, 

 Greymouth, Westport, Charleston, and other places, which, but a few years 

 ago, had only been trodden by occasional bands of savages, engaged in a 

 seai"ch for greenstone, or upon a mission of slaughter and cannibalism. The 

 miserable remnants of pas, with their wretched half-starved native inhabitants, 

 speedily gave way to the busy haunts of the digging population. The rivers, 

 rarely visited even by the canoe of the savage, are now used as ports by large 

 steam and sailing vessels. The forest in the vicinity of the towns is disappearing, 

 to be replaced by grass paddocks. Good roads and railways are being 

 substituted for the miserable bush track ; millions of pounds' worth of the 

 precious metals are extracted from the river courses and their ancient deposits, 

 and exchanged for food and all the other various articles required for the use 

 and the luxui-y of man, and the hardy diggers, who have set all this in motion, 

 are gradually altering the whole face of the country under the influence of 

 " the sacred thirst for gold." 



It is, indeed, wonderful that there is scarcely a nook or cranny in the 

 Middle Island — a country as large as England, though inhabited by a 

 population not exceeding that of a second-rate provincial town — in which, after 

 thirty years occupation, some evidence of the existence of civilized man is not 

 to be found ; a fragment of a glass bottle — an empty match-box — a piece of 

 woven cloth — or of manufactured • leather — being often discovered in localities 

 affording no other indication whatsoever that man had ever been there ; whilst 

 familiar Eui'opean plants, weeds or flowers, as the case may be, occurring in 

 the most sequestered valleys or upon the most rugged mountain slopes, show 

 the presence of the invader and the effect of the new forces which have been 

 brought into operation, and which are engaged in altering and modifying the 

 original physical features of this country. 



[After some further account of similar changes in other parts of the 

 Islands, the lectiirer proceeded as follows] : — • 



There are few subjects of greater interest to the biologist than the " replace- 

 ment of species " (as it has been termed), which occurs when foreign organisms 



