308 
The N.Z. Journal of Science and Technology. 
[Jan. 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
Frogs in New Zealand. 
Sir, —In the interesting paper by A. S. Thomson, M.D. (N.Z. Journal of 
Science, vol. 3, p. 220), mention is made of the New Zealand frogs. Possibly 
the following confirmatory note on the subject may be of interest. In the 
earth “ sixties ” I was one of the four Government surveyors attached to 
the Native Land Purchase Department at Auckland. On the 24th June, 
1862, I received instructions to proceed to Coromandel to define the 
boundaries of the Tokatea Block, which His Excellency Sir George Grey 
had recently arranged to lease from the Maori owners for gold-digging 
purposes. On the same day I accompanied Mr. (afterwards Sir) Donald 
McLean, Chief Land Purchase Commissioner, on board PI.M.S. “ Harrier/’ 
Captain Sir Malcolm McGregor, and we steamed down to Kopu-tauake, a 
bay a little to the north of Coromandel, where we found all the Maoris of 
the district assembled to receive payment of £1,200, being two years’ rent 
at £500 a year and £200 for some outside claims. The money, in sovereigns, 
was placed in squares on a mat, and then handed over to Riria, a fine old 
Maori woman, who was the principal owner of the land leased. 
Accompanied by my cadet, Mr. Charles Godfrey Knight, and a party 
of local Maoris, I commenced the survey on the 8th July, and carried the 
boundary-line of the lease along the main dividing range of the Coromandel 
Peninsula, passing the massive Tokatea rock of white quartz situated on 
the summit of the range, and which afterwards gave its name to the famous 
gold-mine. On the 15th July, while examining the loose stones on the 
crest of the range, moss-covered and damp from the elevation, to my 
great surprise I discovered under these stones several little frogs, which 
were about 1 in. in length and J in. in width. They were green and 
golden-brown in colour, and very pretty little objects. I asked my Maoris 
about them, but they had never seen them before, nor could they give me 
a name for them, beyond saying they were jporaJca, which would be their 
pronunciation of the English word “ frog,” thus clearly demonstrating 
that they had heard of the discovery related in Dr. Thomson’s paper. 
I secured two of these little frogs, and placed them in a tin match-box, 
and on my return to Auckland a month later presented them to Sir George 
Grey—a fact which he reminded me of some twenty years afterwards. 
Though I have been on nearly every mountain and range in the North 
Island, the above was the only occasion when I ever saw or heard of any 
frogs. Probably they are confined to the particular range of mountains 
which terminates in Cape Colville. g Percy Smith. 
[According to information supplied to me by Mr. Curtis, of Collingwood, 
the native frog is confined to the upper slopes of Mount Moehau, near 
the north end of the Hauraki Peninsula, and lives in the moss there so 
abundant. I repeatedly searched for it around Coromandel and Opitonui 
during a residence of some months at the latter place, but never obtained 
a specimen. A second species of New Zealand native frog was recently 
discovered on Stephen Island (see A. It. McCulloch, “ A New Discoglossoid 
Frog from New Zealand,” Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 51, 1919, pp. 447-49). It 
seems quite possible that other species may yet be discovered.—J. A. T.] 
