New Zealand

The following table resumes some important data:— The range of mean temperatures is small, the rainfall moderate save on the west slopes of the Southern alps. (See Hokitika above.) The snowline reaches down to 3,00o ft. on the eastern side of the Southern alps which has rather lower temperatures than other parts (see Queenstown above) but on the western side it is at 3,700 feet. Nelson, sheltered from the west, is famed for its sunny climate with cool bracing nights.

The winter maximum of rainfall in the north follows naturally from the regime of the winds, the all-the-year round distribution of the light rainfall on the east side of South island contrasts with the tendency to a spring maximum on the western and southern fringes of the Southern alps. The heavy rainfall on the west has permitted glaciers to exist and to reach down into the lowlands in some places in spite of the general mildness. The mountainous Stewart island has 65.2 in. of rainfall. The mild ness and rainfall permit widespread evergreen vegetation and the healthiness of the islands is attested by the death rate of per i,000 in 1926, the lowest death rate known.

Flora.

There are about i,000 species of flowering plants, of which about three-fourths are endemic. Most of those not peculiar to the country are Australian ; others are South Ameri can, European, Antarctic ; and some have Polynesian affinities. Ferns and other cryptogamic plants are in great variety and abundance. The New Zealand flora, like the fauna, has been cited in support of the theory of the remote continental period. In appearance the more conspicuous flora differs very greatly from that of Australia, Polynesia, and temperate South America, and helps to give to the scenery a character of its own.

The early colonists found quite half the surface of the archi pelago covered with dense, evergreen forest, a luxuriant growth of pines and beeches, tangled and intertwined with palms, ferns of all sizes, wild vines and other parasites, and a rank, bushy, mossed undergrowth. Though much of the timber is of com mercial value—notably the kauri, totara, puriri, rimu, matai and kahikatea—this has not saved the forests from wholesale, often reckless, destruction for settlement purposes. In late years active operations by the State, private companies and the settlers them selves, in re-afforestation with European, Californian and Aus tralian soft woods are doing much to restore the earlier ravages. These improvements are mainly in the naturally open and grassy regions of the east and south-east.

Fauna.

In their natural state the islands had no land mam mals. The Polynesians brought a dog, now extinct, and a black rat, now rarely seen. The wild dogs and pigs in outlying districts

are descendants of domestic animals which have escaped into the bush. There are no snakes. There are bats, one belonging to a pe culiar genus and one related to Australian and South African forms. New Zealand was very rich in birds, the tui and mako mako being famed as songsters, while the flightless and weak winged birds were numerous; the kiwi (Apteryx), kakapo (strigops), takahe (Notornis) cannot fly. The last named is very rare and has not been seen since 1898. New Zealand formerly possessed the gigantic running bird called the moa (Dinornis), a huge rail (Aptornis) and other bird types now extinct. The earlier destruction of the forests had disastrous effects on bird-life. In the Alps a hawk-like green parrot, the kea, which has been known to kill sheep, holds its ground. The pukeko, a hand some rail, abounds in swamps.

Bush and grass fires, cats, stoats and weasels, introduced in the 19th century, have reduced the bird population ; and deer, pheasants, trout and salmon have been introduced by sportsmen. The most famous New Zealand animal, scientifically, is the Tuatara, the sole survivor of the reptilian order of the Rhynchocephalia, otherwise extinct since Mesozoic times so far as is known. The butterflies are few and moths numerous ; there was a native beach spider (katipo) now extinct. An organism named Peripatus has a New Zealand species; it is intermediate in structure between the earthworms and the myriapods and species occur in various isolated regions, mostly in southern lands.

Resolution, Kapiti and little Barrier islets have been set aside as sanctuaries for the native fauna.

Tidal waters furnish minute whitebait, and the mud-flats of salt or brackish lagoons and estuaries flounders. Oysters, both mud and rock, are good and plentiful. Sharks are found every where, and are common around the north ; they rarely attack man. The albatross is the most conspicuous sea-bird. Penguins are found, confined to the islets of the far south. (H. J. B. D.) New Zealand is part of the Australasian festoon on the Pa cific edge of the Australasian arc. Owing to its critical position it has had a particularly varied geological history, and includes, for its size, an unusually complete series of marine sedimentary rocks. It is still a matter of doubt whether pre-Cambrian rocks constitute any portion of the islands. The oldest rocks, however, extend at intervals down the western side of the South island. They include a complex of gneisses, schists and dioritic igneous rocks in Fiordland, and sillimanite gneisses on Stewart island.