OLD IDENTITY TALES ABOUT OLD IDENTITIES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 4870, 26 September 1877, Page 7

OLD IDENTITY TALES ABOUT OLD IDENTITIES.

This was the title of a pap 3 r read by Mr Robert Gilles at the meeting of the Otago Institute held on the llth inst.: •

Mr Gillies said:—There was no class of facts more freely and frankly admitted as such, than that the indigenous species of Australia, South America, etc were quickly retiring before foreign introduced forms. The forms of life -which were around us now in New Zealand, were not those which peopled and clothed our hills and valleys, woods, £nd plains, a quarter of a century ago. The changes, though rapid and m some cases complete, had been silent and continuous, and hence had escaoed observation, and it -was only by casting the memory back to what was the state oi matters years ago, that they could realise bowmuchthe condltidnof things had changed. Hence it was that a detailed and exact record^ of such things was impossible, and great difficulty was experienced in obtaining such reliable data as was desirable for tlieir purpose. Were ib possible to forsee what forms were likely to be modified- or to become extinct, then care could be taken so to conduct observations as to ensure results winch could bo tabulated . with all the accuracy of numerical precision. But m the nature of the case, this was impossible. Changes were going oa now under their notice. Old forms were now passing away, and new ones were coming on the scene in tlieir place. But who was to foretell what is doomed, and what was to endure. No doubt much may be done, and was being done, with a view to the future. But the irrevocable past was gone, without data being preserved which now they wished to •have.-and it only remained for them to save the shreds and patches which still hngered in.the memories cf the settlers. These must necessarily be imperfect, but as the only thing leffc for them to do, it might prove not wholly valueless, and to the younger generation growing up amidst the new order of things could not be without interest. It might also be that the Bcraps, which he was about to lay before the meeting, and which hxd been Culled from hi 3 own experience- and memory, might be the means of exciting others possessed of fuller and better materials to put them on record in a simple form for what they were worth. Who knew, if this hint wero to be acted upon butthey yet might have a record "of the past of their fauna and flora.as complete as he was juite certain that it would be startling in: comparison with the present.- He would first refer to the changes in their fauna, and as the mosfc practical and direct way 'of doing so, he would "relate some facts connected with some which had passed or-almost passed away. He would begin with insects, and then refer to a few birds, and then to the only mammals existing as wild in his memory. He would tben allude to some new forms which had been introduced and were now prevalent everywhere, and would pass on tosuch marked cases in the flora of the country as had come under his own notice. Then he would discuss some of the causes which had operated in producing the results referred te, and would try to indicate in what direction their observations should be. directed in the future. He then alluded to the great inconvenience whibh the early settlers used to experience from.the blow-fly, which, ho said had now almost disappeared. Its place in mature had been taken up by the common house fly, a more annoying but by no means so disgusting an insect.. In the'early days of the settlement there were no house flies m Otago, but they appeared in Dunedin, and gradually extended over the whole of the Province, entirely supplanting, by the inexorable law of the survival of the fittest, the genuine old identity blow-;fly. Another insertwhich was very prevalent.2s years ago,, had now almost disappeared, that v. was the mosquito (Gulex acer).. ;.It might be also ridiculous for him io tell thc-m that fleas (Pidexirritans) were much more numerous in the early days of the settlement than they were at present. No doubt, as better homes were built, and more civilised hab-'lsbecame possible, these insect.pests had not the same chance as before, but this did not account for all the change.'But blow-flies, mosqu.itos, and fleas-were not tho only insect nuisances which"the* early settlers* had to,endure, as for pertinacity, and genuine sWguihary arinoy&nce, he thought the, New Zealand sandfly surpassed-them. , Near the beach—especially a sandy- beach—or on the edge of a bush, these insectn swarmed in millions, and in warm weather, jusfc -before rain, their" attacks-were ino:»t ferocious and venomous. Referring to birds, he said that the parroket arid kaka had almost passed away. The New Zealand pigebn {Carpophaga Novae Zealandiae) was a.bird-which thoy must all regret had almost ceased. =to 'be extant here. The quail, another native birj, exceedingly plentiful in the open grass lands in tlie tarly'days, was now. so rare as to be valuable as a museum specimen. Native, ducks of various sorts had: not suffered so.severely as many other forms, buteven they were not so plentiful as they used to be. The rapidity with which certain introduced species of birds had spread over the country was something marvellous. The ouly mammals existing in that part of New Zealaud when the settlers arrived were the rat, the wild pig, and.the.wild dog.* The first of those, the rafc "(Mus decumanus), was met with everywhere in great numbers. It was not confined to the neighbourhood of the settlements," Maori or whaling, but wherever one pitched his camp, away iv the wilderness where human foot never before trod, there rats were found. It must strike.„ many of. them as startling to say that only 30 years ago the flaxy hills and- hollows which were now covered by the City of Dunedin were the regular hunting grounds of the Maoris and whalers resident at the Heads for the wild pig. Th?re were; plenty of old settlers still amongst them who had hunted and caught wild pigs withiu the City boundaries. Even -fourand-twenty years ago he had hunted them not far from the Halfway Bush. He remembered on one occasion a large party went out to the back of Flagstaff Hill, and in two days killed about 70 pigs, young and old. In various parts of the country he had seen them in herds of scores at a time, but they soon disappeared when the country became settled. He had in hi 3 possession, and seen in the possession of settlers, the tusks of very old boars that muat ; have lived for many years where tbey were obtained, allowing cfearly that the pigs were not merely surplus stock escaped from the settlers and gone wild, but genuine old Maori pig 3. In fact, the long pointed snout, long legs, and nondescript colours of the true wild pig. showed them to be quite a different breed from the settlers' imported pig. Their flesh tasted quite differently from pork, being more like venison than anything else. But pighunting, the New Zealand sport of sports, had long become only a tradition of the past. So, too, the wild &og—Canisfamiliaris, was now unknown. At the beginning of hi 3 paper hs proposed to pass on to the consideration of some marked changes in the flora of the Province which had been specially observed by hitn, and then to have discussed some ofthe general questions involved in the facts with a view to. the elucidation of the lines along which their'observations in future ought to be directed V but his narrative had J taken more of a popular character than he at firsfc intended, and had already extended to such an undue length that he must leave those for some future time.

An interesting discussion followed, in whioh the Chairman, Professor H«tton, Mr Blair, and Mr A. H. Reas took part.

The Canterbury land sates kst month were upwards of £160,000,