Gillies. — Notes on some Changes in the Fauna of Oiago. 309 



all iuteiicling emigrants that tliG fine natural waterv/ays wliicli traversed tlie 

 Otago block were kind dispensations of Pro-^ddence for tlie special benefit of 

 the Free Cliurch settlement not accorded to the rival Church settlement in 

 Canterbury, and which effectually precluded the necessity for such expensive 

 new-fangled contrivances as railways. It is true that shipments of flour or 

 goods generally have been known to be detained for months at the Heads 

 waiting a fair wind ; but time was not of much value then, and if settlers 

 could not get then- things, they had just to do without. Well, on one 

 occasion we (my brothers and I) heard that the boat had been round and 

 landed a lot of flour, sugar, etc., for us at the head of the lake. It so 

 happened that it had been very wet weather, and the rivers and creeks were 

 flooded to such an extent that it was impossible to bring home such com- 

 modities on the sledge without great loss ; so one of us went down to the 

 lake with a large woollen waggon-cover, exactly the same as those used by 

 carriers in the old country. With this large new cover the goods were all 

 securely protected from rain at least, for fi-om rats there was no escape. 

 Unfortunately the wet weather continued, and from the long rough herbage 

 that everywhere covered the country the water was retained, so that it 

 was six weeks before the creeks became sufficiently low to bring these 

 goods home. You may judge of our annoyance and disgust when we went 

 for them to find the large woollen cover one mass of rottenness crawling 

 with maggots which had eaten away yards of it, and reduced it all to a 

 useless mass of rags. So common and prevalent were these blow-flies that 

 no damp or greasy surface was safe from them, even though not woollen. I 

 have seen an iron crowbar that had been grasped by a greasy hand fly- 

 blovTi in a very short time. As for mutton or beef it could scarcely be 

 placed steaming on the table before these pests would attack it, and it was 

 rare in the summer time that you used your knife and fork without having 

 to remove from the crevices of perfectly fresh and wholesome meat the 

 small living larvae of these flies. Many of you may think that this was bad 

 housewifery, or that I am greatly exaggerating, but it is not so. A story 

 used to be told of an old lady at Clutha, who in her endeavours to keep 

 cooked meat free of these pests, adopted the plan of i^utting it into a very 

 large tin kettle, but she soon found out it was of no use, for, as she said, 

 " the nasty things just ganged down the spout." 



Mr. C. H. Street tells me that on one occasion, many years ago, he 

 was out pig- hunting at the back of Warepa bush along with a gentleman 

 now holding a high judicial position in the north, and that being unable 

 to carry the pig which they had killed and disembowelled, they were com- 

 pelled to drag it along some distance on the fern and grass. On looking 

 back some one hundred yards they were astonished to see the broad track 



