HISTORICAL RECORD 21 



anid the colony were long, extending from three to five months, and 

 it must have been difficult to convey many animals on board the 

 small ships which were the only carriers. But the immigrants occa- 

 sionally brought out pets, especially cats and dogs, with probably 

 fowls, pigeons, rabbits, canaries and other song birds. Certainly also 

 they introduced most of the common weeds, such as chickweeds, 

 thistles, groundsel, and others. I have more than once observed the 

 plants which have grown up round a heap of ashes and rubbish where 

 immigrants' old bedding and refuse were burned, and only regret now 

 that I did not keep a record of the species at the time. 



For several years the settlers were too busy founding homes and 

 bringing their land into cultivation to attend much to any but the 

 most essential things; but after about a score of years had passed, 

 and there was time for leisure and reminiscence, new ideas came to 

 them, or perhaps it is more correct to say, original ideas re-asserted 

 themselves as they seemed to be capable of realisation. 



The beginning of the rush of immigration dates from between 

 1840 and 1850, and the process has been continued with more or less 

 intermission ever since. But in a general sketch of the subject of 

 animal and plant introduction, we need not concern ourselves further 

 as to dates ; these will be given as far as possible in the case of each 

 individual species. Here we are concerned only with the general result 

 and its causes. 



The early settlers of New Zealand found themselves in a land 

 which, as far as regards climate and natural conditions, seemed to 

 them to reproduce many of the best features of the homeland from 

 which they came. They thought with affection and with the glamour 

 of youthful remembrance of the lakes and rivers, the woods and the 

 fields, the hills and the dells of that homeland. They recalled the sport 

 which was forbidden to all but a favoured few, but which they had 

 often longed to share in — ^the game preserves, the deer on the 

 mountains or in the parks, the grouse on the heather-clad hills, the 

 pheasants in the copses and plantations, the hares and partridges in 

 the stubbles and turnip fields, the rabbits in the hedgerows and 

 sandy warrens, and the salmon of forbidden price in their rivers — and 

 there rose up before their vision a land where all these desirable 

 things might be found and enjoyed. Their thoughts went back to the 

 days when they guddled the spotted trout from under the stones of 

 the burns and brooks, to the song birds which charmed their youthful 

 ears, to the flowers and trees which delighted the eye. They recalled 

 the pleasant memories of hours passed on the hills and in the woods 

 of their beloved native land. Here, in a land of plenty, with few wild 

 animals, few flowers apparently, and no associations, with streams 



