HISTORICAL RECORD 19 



now stands, for the cultivation of wheat for certain Sydney mills. 

 About 30 acres were grown, but the place was abandoned soon after 

 on account of rats, difficulties of shipment, and fires. 



In 1 842 Captain Wm Mein Smith , chief surveyor of the Wellington 

 Land Company, visited the south-east of Otago, and writes of one 

 settlement there as follows: 



At Tautuku Bay (30 miles from Molyneux River) is a good deal of land 

 cultivated by a number of industrious men who are, through the winter, 

 engaged in the whale fishery. In the summer they are occupied in their 

 gardens. They produce abundance of fine potatoes, and as much wheat 

 and barley as they can consume. They have many pigs, goats, and a rapidly 

 increasing stock of poultry. 



It is quite probable that several of the European weeds of cultiva- 

 tion which are now so common in the south end of New Zealand 

 were introduced in these days of early and casual settlement. But 

 few animals would be thus brought in, except perhaps certain ffies 

 and other domestic insects, and perhaps some worms, wood-lice and 

 such familiar accompaniments of human settlement. 



Turning to the north of New Zealand, though the visitation was 

 greater, the record has not been worked out so thoroughly as for the 

 south. But from the end of the i8th century greater numbers of 

 vessels visited northern ports for the whale fishery. Captain King, 

 Governor of New South Wales, had landed in the Bay of Islands in 

 1793, and gave the natives some pigs, as well as wheat, maize, and 

 no doubt other things not mentioned. The Rev. Samuel Marsden 

 sent them wheat in 1810, and a further lot in 1811. When he visited 

 the island in 1814, he brought with him the mission party, which 

 was established at Kerikeri and Waimate near the Bay of Islands, 

 and the live stock accompanying the party included one entire horse, 

 two mares, one bull and two cows, with a few sheep and poultry. 

 From this date onwards there is no doubt numerous introductions 

 of plants and animals were made. In 1832 the Wesleyan Mission 

 station at Kaeo-Wangaroa was established, but the party were driven 

 out of there and shifted their ground to Hokianga. The occurrence 

 of exotic historic trees of great size at the present day in these regions 

 testifies to the activity of the missionaries as pioneers in this work 

 of introducing new forms of life in the country. Then too, the 

 quantity of flax, potatoes and other produce, exported from New 

 Zealand and supplied to ships in these pre-settlement days, was very 

 great, and this shows that there must have been much trade and inter- 

 communication between the natives and the Europeans. Numbers 

 of weeds and of animals must have been introduced into the north 

 in this way. About 1826 the ' Rosanna ' (already mentioned) with some 



