PAKEHA'S BIRDS

Marlborough Express, Volume LX, Issue 230, 29 September 1926, Page 8

PAKEHA'S BIRDS

HOW THEY OAM E TO N.Z. GOOD SETTLERS. "THE FEATHERED OHOIR."

(Auckland Star.)

Folk who glory in the out of doors in this temperate and lsindly climate seldom reflect that there was a time when the lark, with its trilling welcome to tlie midday sun, and the pert sparrow, of whose numbers Providence keeps special tally, were not numhered among the featbered inhabitants of New Zealand. Tlie first of the emigrants who came here, lacking the knowledge gained by tlie earlier niissianary settlers, thought tluit there were few, if any, singing birds in tlie country ; they guessed that the nativ.es very likely ate some kinds of birds, but that there were game birds worthy of a wliito man was most unlikelv. The "feathered choir" whose. nielody at daybreak has charmed ,so many was not to be lieard on the sem i-'deyastated lidges t'mnting the Waitemata. The redbilled /'pukaki," as he was inelegantly called, and the mutton bird, ivith the aroma of its finny diet, did not. appeal to persons nurtured on mildewed ganie in the Old Lands. The tender pigeon was a food that the Maori did not care to share with the newly-arrived pakeha, to whom he was ready to sell pork and onions. Tlie missionaries had brought frnits and flowers of different kinds to New Zealand, and the feathered natives. like the tattooed ones, had learned to appreeiate their values. In 1861 the Government of the day yielded to some popular clanior to introduce the birds of tlie Old Lands, to give a more homelike air to the colonies in this new land as well as to fulfil the more utilitarian purpose of varying the menn. Support for the idea, came from a successful effort at bird colonisatioii in Australia, where in 1858 the eqmmoner varieties of Old Country birds had: been "settled." FIRST BIRD PASSENGERS. So it came to pass that 011 December 9, 1861. tlie _ ship Cashmere, which cleared St. Katherine's Docks, carried 81 oages of siiiging and game birds destined to be dqmiciled on the farther side -of the globe in New Zealand. The prisoners had been collected under the direction of Mr Bartlett, of tlie London Zoological Gardens, at the solicitation of tlie N.Z. Goveriinient agent, Mr Morrison. Mr Bartlett had previously superintended the migrating of the birds to Australia. The bird passen-

gers were: — The No. shipped. The No. Arrived. 9 partridges 4 2 pheasants — 12 blackbirds 10 13 tlirushes 11 12 larks 10 8 goldfinches 4 8 bullfinehes 3 9 linnets 6 , 16 chaffinches 6 16 sparrows 7 12 starlings 9 2 Canadian geese ... 2 4 barnade geese 4 12 teal 11 12 widgeon 1 147 88 All cirerunstanoes oonsidered, the niortality was not lieavy ; the ship-b-oard arrangements were under the care of Mr John Wilson, whose brother was superiiitendent of natural history at the Orystal Palace. The ship, whioh left the docks on December 9. did not reach Auckland until April 8, and liad a sever© buffeting by storm s in tlie Bay of Biscay. PROBLEM OF FEED1NG. The problem of feeding the bird travellers was of consideriable complexity. The many varieties of the birds meaiit an almost equal variety in food suplies. Fresh food, as such, w'ould not be procurahle. Moreovei, the long confinement would meaii that overfed birds would succumb. The food supplies carried for the emigrants included Gernian paste. preserved liver, preseryed frnits and vegetables, biscuit, rioe, potatoes, eggs, seeds of ivlieat, oats, barley, hemp and flax. Ten quarts of water per diem were allocated for the needs of the feathered population in the e'ages. Grass seed had been growii in little bo.xed plots to be ready for the trip to give something like real surroundings to the prisoners. Special arvangem.ents had to he made for the web-footed birds. Arrived at Auckland, the consignment was warmly welcomed, and hundreds of people- went to the wharf to view tlie new arrivals who had so well borne the trials of the. iourney out, and whose presenoe recalled so many memories of life in the lands 12,000 weary miles distant. Tlie birds were liberated 011 the propeirties of people who had voliinteered to' look after them. A pair of the sparrows was kept in a cage in a grocer's shop on Victoria Road, Devonport, and the youngsters of the time, some' of whom were approacliing their twenties, were vast.lv interested in them. Most of this first migration of the pakeha's birds seem to have pros-

pered and to have developed into good settlers. Other migrations liave occurred since, and the descend-

ants of the firstcomers have worked their way all over New Zealand and have found it, as the pakeha did, "God's Own Country."