CARNIVORA 87 



In 1857, Mr John Sutherland (now of Te Kiuti, Auckland provincial 

 district), then a shepherd on the Greenfield Estate, saw some black 

 and white long-eared rabbits between the Tokomairiro and Waitahuna 

 Rivers. These also disappeared in later years. This country was quite 

 uninhabited at the time, though sheep were running on it. Mr H. B. 

 Flett states that a good many rabbits, which had escaped from 

 captivity at Waitahuna, found their way to the open country, and 

 increased to a slight extent, but eventually died out completely. He 

 attributes their extermination to the weka or Maori hen (Ocydromus), 

 "which were very plentiful at that time and for some years subsequent. 

 They used to go into the holes and eat the young rabbits. I have 

 seen a weka killing a half-grown rabbit." 



The late Mr Telford of Clifton introduced some rabbits, and bred 

 them in hutches till they numbered about fifty. They were then 

 liberated on Clifton, near the banks of the Molyneux, but died out 

 in a short time. This was about the year 1864. Mr Clapcott also 

 liberated some at the old homestead at Popotunoa Station, but they 

 also failed to thrive, and disappeared. It is probable that there were 

 other attempts to acclimatise rabbits, all more or less unsuccessful. 

 Dr Menzies of Mataura also introduced rabbits, and he is usually 

 credited with having been the successful introducer of them to the 

 south, an achievement the credit of which has not been very eagerly 

 sought after. They were liberated on the sand-hills somewhere near 

 the Bluff. 



Sir Geo. Grey also appears to have introduced them at about 

 the same date, for in the annual report of the Canterbury Society 

 in 1866 it is said that " an enclosure has been set apart for the Silver- 

 grey Rabbits presented by Sir G. Grey, which have thriven well and 

 increased to a great extent, and have been distributed to members far 

 and near." Later in the same year the Society passed this minute: 

 "The suggestion of giving as a reward, for the destruction of hawks 

 and wild cats, some silver-grey rabbits, was approved of." In 1866 

 the Otago Society liberated 60 rabbits, 23 in 1867, and 18 in 1868, 

 but I do not know whether these came from Britain or from Australia. 

 These are the only records I have been able to secure so far as to 

 the introduction of rabbits into the colony, and they would account 

 for the presence of these animals in Southland, Otago, Canterbury 

 and Auckland. There can be no doubt, I think, that what happened 

 in the south, happened elsewhere at every port where settlement took 

 place, and that private individuals at Nelson, Wellington, New Ply- 

 mouth and Napier also imported rabbits. But when the animals 

 became a pest, and their increase was recognised to be a calamity 

 to the country, every one was desirous of repudiating the responsi- 



