H.—2B

2

the settler to sell them. By this means the district would clear itself automatically, and no more complaints would be heard. It is necessary that the settlers should be acquainted with the best and easiest methods of trapping and with the way of preparing the skins for market. As beaming on these points, I append to this report notes by Mr. E. C. Evans, of Orari GoTge, who is an experienced trapper, and Mr. H. *H. Ostler, who has had a little experience as an amateur trapper. These notes will enable settlers in fruit districts to know how they should deal with opossums and how the skins should bo prepared for market. I could not find at Albany that any professional fruitgrower had found the ravages of opossums so serious that he had decided to abandon fruitgrowing, or that any intending fruitgrower had abandoned his intention on account of the presence of opossums. The trouble caused by opossums in orchards might, I think, be dealt with on the lines suggested to the Minister of Internal Affairs on the 15th July, 1913, by Mr. L. 0. Tripp, after consultation with Mr. T. W. Kirk, of the Department of Agriculture. In Section XI of this report I have made suggestions for regulations to deal with the fruit districts. TT. Gardens, Less serious damage is done by opossums in gardens than in orchards, but very many gardenplants suffer. Buds and shoots of roses and of many shrubs are bitten off; peas, when the pods are filling, are attacked ; beet is sometimes eaten, as are other vegetables. 111. Plantations. In February last the Forestry Branch of the Lands Department called the attention of the Department of Internal Affairs to articles in the Australian Forestry Journal for January. One of these articles was by Mr. Walter Gill, Conservator of Forests for South Australia. Mr. Gill knows the thing of which he writes, and he writes strongly against the opossum, which has been found to be a dangerous pest in pine plantations. It strips the bark from leading shoots of Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis) and of P. maritima, killing hundreds of trees. Thousands of self-sown seedlings are destroyed at a height of 5 ft. or 6 ft. Opossums have had to be destroyed in Bundaleer Forest, in Worrabura Forest, and in Mount Burr Forest. Having this very weighty evidence before me, I examined plantations carefully in all places in which I could find indications that opossums were present in the neighbourhood, but I have been unable to find that any damage to plantations has at present been done, in New Zealand. I looked for evidence of such damage, particularly in the plantations of the Lcith Valley Reserve, Dunedin, seeing that opossums are present in the adjoining portions of the reserve that carry native bush. I could find no damage. Mr. Tannock, Superintendent of Reserves, has kindly undertaken to report any damage that he or his man observe. Of special importance are the plantations at Whakarewarewa, the Waiotapu Valley, and on the Kaingaroa Plains. I have not yet found time to examine these plantations, not regarding an examination as absolutely necessary in view of the fact that on the 19th September last the Department of Tourist and Health Resorts informed the Department of Internal Affairs of the Ranger's report to the effect that the opossums liberated in the Rotorua in 1906 had disappeared. I will seek an opportunity to examine these plantations if you wish it t Since the foregoing paragraph was written I have had the opportunity of examining a portion of the plantation at Whakarewarewa in company with Mr. Goudie, the officer in charge of the forest station. I could, find no trace of opossums, and Mr. Goudie informs me that he does not know of any being in the Rotorua district. The weighty and convincing evidence referred to above makes it perfectly clear that opossums should not be liberated at any place from which they could spread to the plantations of the Rotorua district— say, at any place between the Rangitaiki River and the open lands of the Waikato and the Thames Valleys. If they are now present in that area they should be destroyed. It is further clear that detached plantations within, say, ten miles of the area should be watched sufficiently to ensure that they do not harbour opossums. The like precautions should be used with regard to extensive plantations in other districts. So far as imported trees used for purposes of afforestation are concerned, the only evidence of damage that I have been able to obtain is in connection with Pinus insignis. Settlers in the Albany district, in the neighbourhood of Auckland, arc unanimous in stating that the young male cones of this tree are much eaten by opossums. In the Waterworks Reserve of the Wellington Corporation at Wainuiomata there is, near the caretaker's house, a group of oak-trees from which the leaves have been eaten to such an extent that the trees may be said to have been stripped. This process has only to be repeated a few times to kill the trees. Opossums were liberated in the Wainuiomata about twenty-five years ago, and it is only within the last ten years or so that they have become numerous and have done such damage as that referred to. It would seem, therefore, that an oak plantation in which opossums are numerous would be completely ruined. On the other hand, it has to be borne in mind that the number of oak-trees in the group referred to is small —five or six—and the opossums have evidently chosen the trees as furnishing a kind of food different from that available in the surrounding bush. It does not follow that in a plantation of oaks they would do damage in the like proportion. It is none the less certain that opossums should not be allowed to exist in oak plantations. IV. Plant and Animal Sanctuaries. Although I am convinced that opossums do no serious damage to the New Zealand bush; as is, I think, clear from the evidence 1 have given below, I strongly urge that they should be exterminated in plant and animal sanctuaries where they exist. They enter into competition with some birds in the matter of food, and this competition may at times be quite serious. Further, the whole idea of the sanctuary is that birds and other animals, as well as plants, should be conserved in their natural environment. Any intrusive element may modify the original environment in a way that, although it may not be immediately noticeable, may be very important.