equally gratified by the success of all experiments in acclimatisation. In far too many instances, the plants and the creatures so carefully introduced have increased and multiplied at so alarming a rate as already to call forth vigorous, but unavailing, efforts for their repression.

For instance that water-cress which I gathered with such delight from the sparkling brook at Kawau, has proved anything but a boon to the Southern Provinces, where what was originally so carefully planted in the streams, has spread in such dense masses as literally to obstruct the course of rivers, and choke their mouths. In Otago and Canterbury Provinces, destructive floods, which have resulted in loss of life and property, are attributed solely to the increase of this simple plant; and thousands of pounds are annually expended in the effort to check its too luxuriant growth.

The innocent daisy, round which weary, toil-worn men assembled in almost tearful homage, does not seem to have done any damage; but the tall purple thistle, which was brought to New Zealand by a too zealous Scot, now runs riot over the land. I saw it growing in thickets on the waste lands near Auckland; and though some enthusiasts maintained that it was doing good work in preparing the soil for more remunerative crops, I think the farmers would certainly have preferred its absence.

Certainly those of Australia do not attempt to conceal their dismay at its extraordinary increase. It is barely a quarter of a century since the very first thistle was imported to Australia and landed safely at Port Philip. Every Scotchman in Victoria made pilgrimage to the capital, to have a look at the old familiar emblem and dream of home. A great public dinner was given in its honour, and the precious plant occupied the post of honour on the table. Many were the speeches made and toasts drunk on the occasion, and the enthusiasm knew no bounds. Afterwards this thistle was carefully planted in its new kingdom, and right royal has been its rule. Never was conquered country held with a firmer grip. The stately thistle proved so prolific in the congenial soil and kindly climate that now thousands of acres of the farmer's best land are completely cropped with thistles, and no efforts can by any possibility eradicate this pest. Thousands and tens of thousands of pounds have been expended on carrying out various schemes for its extermination, but the hardy invader laughs at them all, and blooms as fresh and fair as ever it did on its own native soil; indeed, it is a much stronger and handsomer plant than were its Scottish

ancestors.

Another plant, which in all these isles has taken a too vigorous

hold of the soil, is the common sweet-briar. Introduced for the sake of its fragrant perfume, it now, especially in Tasmania, has become so strong and so tenacious that it is impossible to keep it within bounds its thick roots penetrate the soil to a great depth, and it forms a dense scrub, to the total destruction of what were formerly pleasant pasture lands.

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Just in the same way, both in Ceylon and Tahiti, I have seen the lantana, introduced a few years ago as an ornamental garden shrub, now overrunning thousands of acres, to the despair of the cultivators; and in Tahiti and Hawaii I have ridden through miles of guava scrub, all descended from a few guava bushes introduced in fruit gardens.

But this increase of vegetable life is as nothing compared with the appalling fecundity of animal life, too rashly introduced in the first rage for acclimatisation. It was thought sufficient to prove that creatures could live in these countries, which possessed so few types of animal life; but the possibility of their increasing only too rapidly, and becoming a curse instead of a blessing, never seems to have occurred to the Acclimatisation Societies.

Their triumphs in filling the Tasmanian rivers with salmon, and in covering vast tracts of New Zealand and Australia with countless herds of sheep and oxen, have been true benefits to mankind; but when it came to introducing sparrows, with a view to the destruction of the grubs and insects which had rapidly increased since European vegetables had been so extensively grown-and, still worse, the introduction of rabbits as a useful addition to the larder-then, indeed, the experiment of acclimatisation was overdone.

About eighteen years ago great excitement prevailed in South Australia when it was announced that about fifty sparrows had been safely landed. It was hoped that the great plague of grubs would rapidly disappear before these ravenous birds, but the result proved very different. The acclimatised sparrow developed totally new habits in a country where there was no struggle for existence, no winged foes to fear, comparatively few men to disturb him, and an unlimited supply of all good things of the earth for his daily food.

Strange to say, he has almost entirely abandoned his carnivorous habits, and is now chiefly frugivorous! An occasional grub may be picked up by chance; but gardens abounding in peaches and plums, pears and apples, nectarines, figs, cherries, and grapes, olives and loquats, offer more tempting fare in summer and autumn; while young peas, cabbages and cauliflowers, wheat and barley, even lucern grass, supply their need in summer and winter.

If fruits are

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out of season, the accommodating birds content themselves with fruit buds, or even with seed.

The unfortunate cultivator, who had hoped to find them useful auxiliaries, is driven to despair. Every expedient for their destruction is tried by turns, but all alike prove ineffectual. The enlightened birds mock at scarecrows, object to eating poison, and those who do succumb to guns, traps, and nets are but an insignificant minority. Still, these prolific birds increase and multiply. The original fifty have already millions of descendants. Like the Israelites of promise, they are as the stars of heaven for multitude; and now one of the most engrossing questions of the Melbourne Government is how to get rid of the sparrows.

A special commission has been appointed to inquire into the "Sparrow Question," and some of the multitude of sufferers have appeared as witnesses against the depredators. Their evidence is startling. One man tells how he sowed his peas three times, and each time they were eaten by the sparrows. Another had fifteen acres of lucern grass destroyed. A third tells how in ten days they cleared his vineyard of a ton and a half of grapes, and stripped five fig-trees which had been loaded with fruit. A fourth, owning a garden of moderate size, had been robbed of £30 worth of fruit, and so the evidence goes on accumulating, and the sparrow is proved to be a far worse foe than caterpillars or even blight.

So evident is the necessity of strong action in the matter that the South Australian Government has now offered a reward of sixpence per dozen for sparrows' heads, and 2s. 6d. per hundred for their eggs. This will doubtless afford a useful income to many a lad, but considering how vast is the extent of the land and how few its inhabitants, there is small reason to hope that the enemy will ever be really conquered. The vegetarian sparrow of Australia will probably continue in full possession of the land.

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Grievous as the introduction of sparrows has proved to the Australian agriculturist, that of rabbits has proved even serious to the sheep-farmer. In Victoria the attention of the Legislature is divided between these two pests. The rabbits, introduced twenty-five years ago as table delicacies, have now increased and multiplied so alarmingly as to destroy many of the finest sheep-runs, and ruin the men who held them.

When first an alarm was raised as to the probability of their increase, it was supposed that the native cat, which is a kind of weasel, would effectually check this danger; but, strange to say, these curious creatures soon became sworn allies, and are said to

share the same burrows in the most friendly manner. So effectually do the rabbits destroy the grass, that many great districts have been entirely abandoned, and the few remaining inhabitants have to import their mutton from more favoured runs.

New Zealand has, perhaps, suffered even more grievously from the ravages of these gentlest of furry foes. About twenty years ago a colonist brought seven rabbits from the old country to his new home at Invercargill in the southern isle. It was thought that to turn these adrift on the bleak sand-hills along the coast could not fail to prove a benefit to the colony.

For some years this answered capitally, and the colonists enjoyed excellent shooting on the links (as such a sea-board is called in Scotland). But ere long, the rabbits increased to such an extent that they cropped every blade of grass, and even devoured the roots, which alone bound the light sand-hills, and prevented them from blowing over the better soil inland. Very soon this evil occurred, and the land was greatly injured.

Then the farmers on the sea-coast began shooting and trapping in earnest; but by this time some more rabbits had been imported to Otago, and from these two centres the mischief rapidly spread. Considering that each rabbit breeds eight times a-year, and produces an average of six young at each litter, it is easy to perceive how rapid must be their increase. On the other hand, their human foes are few, the settlers in the interior living eight or ten miles aparta lonely life, in truth, where, perhaps, half-a-dozen men herd the flocks which range over fifty thousand acres.

It became evident that these shepherds could never check the progress of the evil without assistance, so men were hired to ferret, trap, shoot, or worry the invaders. These men travelled with large packs of dogs, numbering from one to two dozen. They were paid at the rate of twopence a skin. It was, however, soon found that the sale of skins fetched less than they cost, while the presence of strange dogs disturbed the sheep, and often resulted in their being worried.

The sheep-runs being in general tracts of Crown land, merely rented by the farmer for a limited term of years for the purpose of rearing stock, it was found in many cases not to be worth the expense of attempting to cope with the mischief. One cure after another was tried, such as stopping the burrows with cotton-waste saturated in bi-sulphide of carbon, but all were successively given up as useless efforts to meet so wide-spread an evil. In many cases it was found that the land could no longer support one-fourth of its VOL. CCLII. NO. 1817.

former number of sheep, so the holders were absolutely compelled to throw up their leases and abandon their runs.

The extent of the ravages could hardly be credited were it not for the cut-and-dry statistics of the Rabbit Nuisance Committee. I may quote a few items from the evidence of many gentlemen owning large sheep-runs in the provinces of Otago and South Canterbury. Many begin by stating how incredulous they were at first that rabbits would even take to the new country sufficiently to afford them sport. All too quickly their eyes were opened.

For instance, in South Canterbury, Messrs. Cargill and Anderson killed five hundred thousand rabbits by poison a year ago, but in the following spring their sheep-run was just as densely peopled by them as though not one had perished. Mr. Kitchen states that he kept nearly a hundred men working as rabbit-killers for four months, and succeeded in clearing his land. Now they are worse than ever. Mr. Rees says that he killed a hundred and eighty thousand last year, and his employer, Mr. R. Campbell, expended £3,000 in one year in attempting to keep down the pest on his runs of 168,000 acres. Still the plague spreads, and the whole land from Waitaki to Foveaux Strait is more or less infested with rabbits. Many districts are just a vast warren, on which it is impossible to keep sheep at all. Mr. R. Campbell alone has been compelled to abandon two hundred and fifty thousand acres! Chiefly in Southland and Wallace counties, and on the North Maira Lake and Greenstone Valley several other sheep-farmers have also been forced to abandon runs of from fifteen to sixteen thousand acres.

Many estates, though less seriously injured than these, have still suffered so greatly that their value is immensely deteriorated. Eight runs, which formerly brought in a rental of £1,000 per annum, now let for £170. The Burwood Run is instanced as one which used to carry 80,000 sheep, but now barely provides food for 24,000. In 1878 the total number of sheep in the colony was upwards of thirteen millions; in 1879 it was reduced to about eleven and a half millions; and this decrease, though now considerably checked, has continued. The loss on the exports of wool and tallow is estimated at five hundred thousand pounds per annum,

On the other hand, in 1879, there were exported from New Zealand upwards of five million rabbit-skins-value £46,759-and in the following year upwards of seven million rabbit-skins sold for £66,976.

The rabbit plague had then reached its height, and, as in most cases of extremity, when need is highest, help is nighest. The help