PECULIAR VEGETATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13796, 8 July 1908, Page 8

PECULIAR VEGETATION.

.;■■., ECHO OF CONVICT DAYS. ■ iscixT visitors, presumably mutton-birders, oring -, back word from the .Snares that * /growth of vegetation, peculiar thereto and f wholly unknown to any other part of -New' Zealand and its dependencies,/ has < during the last year been showing unwonted vigour in both j spread and vitality (says the Otago Daily Times).. :It has been known for a period of twenty-five years, possibly longer, but so far as can be ascertained it \ ■ has never been scientifically pronounced upon. It exhibits certain familiar features,; but these in combination are f what render, it wholly inexplicable. ■ During the period named it has spread from the vicinity of -:. ** the landing-place up the gut or trough to- , wards the edge of the cliffs overhanging the sea.™?-*' i A" Bluff correspondent writes: "My Wfi rendering of the situation is that it revives ~ a pakeha-Maori period in New Zealand history of sufficient importance to be put upon . record—at all events, the story • itself ris dramatic enough to warrant- repetition. More than one Hundred years ago the skipper; of a whale ship decoyed ;i away;_i from Sydney Cove three convicts under a promise that he would convey them to England and allow them to go free on arrival. 5 ; The ship cruised on the 'middle grounds,' now the Tasmari Sea, between this and Tasmania. .'„ ' Getting filled up this brutal skipper re- . solved, upon getting rid of his convict crew. On the pretext' that he had to go back to Sydney he' offered to set them on shore at the nearest land or take them back,to, the convict settlement. With the certain prospect of being hanged, they decided on risking the former. ; The then recently-dis-covered Snares 'Islands, being at hand, they were sent on shoremarooned,'in fact. v A . trifling allowance, was ' made <in the ; way of • outfit and provisions. Amongst the latter was a small supply of potatoes. ' " With pru- * dent regard " for : future emergencies,' they carefully abstained from making use of the potatoes unless for seed purposes. We next ear of tbem a year" or eiguieen months later, om which occasion their'smoke darts' attracted the ; notice of a whaler cruising off " . the Solanders. . Having satisfied himself they were meant as signals of distress, the fj whaler sent his boat on shore,: with the result r that • the three men were rescued, and eventually returned to civilisation. Amongst ether observations made regarding their isolation, it was rioted that they had planted ' a well-prepared nlot of potatoes, which ■was left behind, flourishing luxuriantly.' What 1 contend is : that this is '. what - the whiWi 'luxuriant plot of potatoes' has -j come to. ,'• Running wild and neglected, they have got incorporated with the island plants, and in that state have overrun the land, picking up at every step alien element Y-. until their identity has been completely lost. ...■ What makes the matter cf more significance 'j~' as an historical event ;is that this is the first occasion in the history of New Zealand v : South that potatoes: are mentioned at a :;; local product." '