UNGULATA—WILD CATTLE, SHEEP, AND GOATS.
Wild Cattle.
The animals which form the group called the Bovidae (from the Latin bos, an ox), including cattle, sheep, goats, and their allies, differ in several respects from Cervidae, or deer. One of the most important differences is the structure of the horns. Those of the Bovidae are hollow and permanent, while the antlers of deer are made of solid bone and are deciduous, being renewed each year.
The wild cattle of New Zealand are (like the wild pigs) only domesticated animals which have been running in unfenced country for several generations back. They are not nearly so abundant to-day as they were forty or fifty years ago. In these earlier days most of the cattle on the larger runs—to whatever breed they belonged—were more or less wild. They became greatly excited when they saw a man on foot, for they were mostly accustomed to men on horseback, to whom they gave only a passing notice. When mobs of such half-wild cattle were to be yarded, either for branding of calves or for drafting, they were handled pretty roughly. On enclosed roads they were dangerous, and even in open country the presence of people on foot scared and often scattered them. It is no wonder that when such cattle got into wild country where they were undisturbed and never saw human beings they and their progeny quickly became quite wild. When I first came to Southland, about fifty years ago, we were bothered a good deal by wild cattle. They found shelter during severe winter weather in the extensive bush country which formed such a feature of Southland in those days, and they used to come into our paddocks overnight. Fences and ditches never troubled them: they hopped over them as if they were non-existent. In the open country it was impossible to approach them on foot, while even on horseback one had to make a wide circuit to get within range of them. The gradual settlement and enclosure of the land displaced them in time, and they are now found chiefly in distant and seldom-visited parts.
It is difficult to find exact records of the introduction of cattle into New Zealand. They were no doubt brought over by the missionaries, and also by the whalers who settled along the coast. Thus in 1833 John Bell set out from Sydney for Mana Island, in Cook Strait, with ten head of cattle and 102 sheep. Apart from a reference in Marsden’s journal to the landing of some cattle, this is the first record I can find since the days of Cook and Vancouver. In 1839 E. J. Wakefield saw wild cattle on the hills at the entrance of Pelorus Sound. In 1840 he states that they were abundant on Kapiti, and says that they were the descendants of some which were given to the Natives in exchange for flax. The Hon. S. Thorne George, writing to me four years ago, said, “When I first went to Kawau, in 1869, there was a large number of wild cattle. The island was originally occupied as a cattle-station, but owing to the rough country and heavy bush very many were lost and became quite wild.” Mr. A. C. Yarborough, of Kohukohu, informs me that forty years ago wild cattle were very numerous in all the bush country, and in those days Hokianga and the large areas of the west coast of the Island north of Auckland were nearly all covered with bush. The Natives used to kill them in large quantities for the sake of their hides, which were valued at 6s. to 12s. each. In later years these wild cattle have been driven farther and farther back, until they are now found only in the ranges distant from settlement. These cattle are merely the descendants of tame ones which have wandered, the Maoris’ fences being usually of a defective character.
The wild cattle of these early days were an extremely mixed lot, and it is hard to say to what breed they were most nearly allied. Shorthorns, Ayrshire, and Polled Angus were commonly mixed in the South Island, but all sorts of strains were represented.
Mr. B. C. Aston, who crossed over part of the Wellington district in 1914 and 1915, says, “Wild cattle are abundant in unfrequented valleys and gorges of the Tararua Range. They are apparently Hereford cattle gone wild. They eat out many species of native plants, and have destroyed great numbers of Ligusticum dissectum, which is one of the most abundant and characteristic plants of the higher ground.” He adds that cattle are particularly fond of certain native trees and shrubs, such as hinahina, karamu, broadleaf, mangrove, tawa, and karaka. I myself noticed in Ulva, in Paterson Inlet, forty years ago, that the only winter food for the cows was hinahina and similar small trees, which had to be cut down for them. My son Stuart informs me that wild cattle are found in the high country between Lake Wakatipu and the west coast of the South Island; their tracks are numerous, for example, in the valley of the Rockburn.
In 1841 cattle were first introduced into the Chatham Islands. Many of them soon became wild, and used to be trapped by the Natives in the early “sixties.” Wild cattle are now very numerous in the central tableland.
In 1850 cattle were landed on the Auckland Islands, but they were all killed off by sealers. In 1894 cattle were landed from the “Hinemoa” at Enderby and Rose Islands for the use of shipwrecked mariners who were unfortunate enough to be cast ashore on these inhospitable shores. Dr. Cockayne tells me that in 1903 there were about fifteen and ten head respectively on these two islands, and Mr. B. C. Aston adds that on Enderby Island they have exterminated the huge tussocks of Poa litorosa.