WHAT WE OWE TO MOAS.

Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 80, 11 August 1863, Page 6 (Supplement)

WHAT WE OWE TO MO AS.

There can be no question that if these islands bad for centuries been inhabited by mammsils before the arrival of Europeans, \v*d should have found the grasses on our pasturage lands very much, better than they are now, It is not merely that they would have manured the land, but they would have kept the grasses down more to a level with each, other, and thus prevented the more powerful from completely overshadowing and destroying their weaker neighbors. . A clump of snowgrass will cover an area of many square yards, and entirely swamp all the vegetation in its neighborhood ; even a large tussock takes up a good deal of room, and the speargrass of the back country requires more space than is usually imagined ; each, of these threj plants would have been prevented from attaining its present number an/1 dimensions had the country been stocked by nature wi h wild animals of considerable size . the first would have been very much eaten down, for it is good for either sheep or cattle when it is young and growing, and the last two would bave been much trampled on, even if they had not been fed down, for sheep are very fond of the largest spear grass. We have cften seen six or seven sheep so intent upon a single plant of it that we have laid our hand upon the back of one of them before they stirred, and they will nibble it down till they cannot get their mouihs lower into the ground. We are referring to the large blue variety of the spear grass which is seldom found except on swampy land or by the sides of creeks, and which ia entirely unknown on any part of .the plains that we have seen. We know not for certain that sheep "will eat the common speargrass of the upper portion of the plains, and the pest of all the back country— we rather thing they wi 1, for we have seen its spears sticking in the wool of a sheep's head, but the common spiked variety of the plains is relished by cattle, which will warp their tongues round it delicately avoiding its sharp prickles, and not unf requently uproot the whole plant. We can imagine it. therefore, to be not improbable that, if there had been t, ild quadrupeds of any size, they might during the course of ages have material!}' diminished the numbers of our back country pest, just as our own sheep are rapidly destroying the annice, a plant which we have no* wish to get rid of if we could save it. It will be saved, for it often grows on spots which not even a sheep can get at, and from these citadels it will seed, and be continued, though it will soon become comparatively rare.

But weight is a very important desideratum for the improvement of countrj . A stockyard may be put up on. very strong ground, but put a large mob of cattle into it and yardthem for a whole wet day, and though the yard had never been used" before, it will, before night be covered "with a thin layer of mud, so that the stones are much less seen. But little of this is due to the dung; it is mostly due to the treading alone, and no matter how strong a situation be chosen, an old stockard is sure on a wet day to be pretty deep in mud. To take another example ; during last spring, arays took to making a short cut from the Ashburton to the Bakaia. A considerable part of the country through which the new track goes is very strong, yet now the track itself cannot be called strong, though the ground on each side of it is, of course, as bad as ever.

And treading does more than merely drive the stones down and the earth up ; it mellows the soil and renders it fitter for grass seeds, and also if there be animals of any weight, seeds get trodden in which otherwise would never catch, so that we can readily understand what a loss it Jbas been to us that there have not been herds of wild cattle, deer, antelopes, and so forth, depasturing these islands for some four or five thousand years.

The only substitute has been the moa ; and we honestly believe that we owe this great bird a good deal more than is generally supposed. For it was very nrmerous in the back country, whatever it has been on the plains. We believe that if all the moas that had ever lived were lcno«Ti and counted we should find that they averaged a great many to the acre : if this estimate be not considerably over the mark, we must admit they must have exercised a considerable influence upon the grass by their dung, their weight, and their dead bodies supplying the soil with lime. True, they had already taken that lime from the soil, but they returned it in a more active form.

Probably the moa was chiefly an inhabitant of those great forests which have now so nearly disappeared ; but that is neither heitf nor there. If they did not actually improve the grasses themselves, they impioved the land which was to grow the grasses, and Ijave thus put many a good pound of money 1 into the pocket both of the sheepfarmer apd the agriculturist. For which reason let us respect the memory of the moa. Let/s collect 'his bones and send them to honop(We interment in European museums, and /f there be any live moas yet existing, lot the diseoyerer bring them to this office, aid he shall be,, liberally rewarded. '