A. WILD ENGLAND OVER. THE SEAS.

Otago Witness, Volume 30, Issue 2353, 30 March 1899, Page 61

A. WILD ENGLAND OVER. THE SEAS.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) ' LONDON, January 14.

A movement set on foot by the American Government to slock their woods and forests with English game and birds has led the Spectator to discuss, in a most interesting manner, tho possibility of re-making a wild England over the seas. The temperate zones of America, however, are di.°carded foi the purpose : but, drawing conclusions from the Kawau. New Zealand's capabilities seem to afford just what is wanted. "It is not," Fays the writer, " beyond the limit? of the possible to look forward to a time when some wealthy Englishman might wish to reconstruct the wild life of England outside these shores in some blessed region where our ' unrivalled industries ' do not get the belter of Nature, and where life, if less intense, would be more serene. Or, without the ' one man ' impulse, or seeking to reproduce the life of the late Sir GeY>rge Grey on hib island, it is not impossible that a wealthy congeries of the rich and leisured cla^s might endeavour, in the twentyfirst century, Ie reproduce, and maintain, a likeness of rural and wild England as it exists in the most favoured parts to-day, and make it a centre of rest and retirement from the toils of tho greater eqjhmerce or of public life." For this purpose, however, even the temperate zones of America -axa. discarded with the object of reconstructing English rural life. But New Zealand offers in climate and situation great opportunities for remaking old England. " Most of our trees and all our agriculture flourish in these islands," says the Spectator. "So do most English birdß, from the pheasant downwards. In addition, New Zealand is a small continent by itself, and it is possible that even our migratory birds, whose coming and going are among the pleasant and expected natural marks of tho coming of spring, or advent of winter, might bo re-established there, and make themselves times and seasons of coming end departure."

"In a measure English bird life could be reproduced by making some part of New Zealand the centre, leaving it to the* birds (supposing that they could learn the way) to work out their own salvation by keeping in touch, as we believe all migratory birds do, with temperature," continues the article. " The sub-tTopical zone in the Northern Island would be the winter limit of many birds. They would also find migration routes, which are to a very limited extent \ised by existing species, though as New Zealand is in the Southern Hemisphere, the birds must fly north to get warm and south to reach the ice fringe and the frost. For the requirements of the warmth-seeking birds existing arrangements would suffice. Those of the New Zealand birds which did not care to fare the winter could fly up to the Pacific Archipelago, via the Kermadecs, to New Caledonia, Fiji, and the Friendly Islands. This demands a flight of 700 miles, for New Zealand is singularly isolated ; but the flight of homing pigeons of 590 miles in a day shows that this is not impossible." However, the Autarctic does not offer equal accommodation for the birds that now nest on the tundra of the far north, so that, all things considered, "if over the trial is made to create a minor England elsewhere, it would be better placed on the eastern Mediterranean than in the South Pacific," concludes the writer. So those in New Zealand who think, the importation of more peets is intended may rest i satisfied that Greeks, Turks, and Armenians, not to speak of AustVians, will be the first to be blessed by additions to their bird life.