The first attempt to introduce sheep into New Zealand was made by Captain Cook during his second voyage to this country. It was unsuccessful, but the record is interesting. He brought away two rams and four ewes from the Cape of Good Hope, but by the time the “Resolution” entered Dusky Sound in March, 1773, only a ram and a ewe survived, and they were in such a bad state, “suffering from an inveterate sea-scurvy,” that their teeth were loose, and they could not eat the green food which was given to them. Forster in his journal states that they “were in so wretched a condition that their further preservation was very doubtful.” However, they must have improved, for, considering the country about Dusky Sound too rough and forest-clad for them, Cook took them on to Queen Charlotte Sound, which was entered on the 18th May. In his journal he says, “On the 22nd, in the morning, the ewe and ram I had with so much care and trouble brought to this place were both found dead, occasioned, as was supposed, by eating some poisonous plant. Thus my hopes of stocking this country with a breed of sheep were blasted in a moment.” Most probably they had eaten tutu, which is common in the Marlborough Sounds district.
I cannot find when sheep were next brought into New Zealand, but as soon as settlement began they were freely imported from New South Wales. In those early days fences were very rough, and little or no attempt was made to keep sheep within enclosures. They were therefore allowed to roam freely over the open country, and were mustered at only rare intervals for shearing, tailing the lambs, culling, &c. It was inevitable, therefore, that numbers escaped the musterers, especially in high and inaccessible country, and that thus wild sheep became very common in the mountainous districts of the South Island.
Wild sheep are still abundant in some of the wilder parts of the country, and are especially numerous in the high limestone country of Marlborough. Much of this country is a terra incognita, for it is most inaccessible, except in certain rare states of the river-gorges, and very few people know anything about it. Mr. Aston, who recently visited this region on a botanical quest, says, “On the north-west side of Isolated Hill is a gently sloping tussock-land, stretching down towards the Ure River, on which are hundreds of wild sheep in small flocks of about half a dozen in each. All—rams, ewes, and particularly the lambs—are, as far as we could see, in excellent condition. Some were curiously marked and coloured. One had a brown body, black legs and face, and white forehead. The rams had large horns, and all were tamer than ordinary domestic sheep. Their food appears to consist of the silver-tussock (Poa caespitosa)—which was well eaten down—spear-grass, and several other native plants and shrubs.” In another part of his account he adds, “These sheep destroy the mountain-ribbonwood trees (Gaya Lyallii) by eating the bark, which we watched one stripping off in large sheets.”
In the district of Strath Taieri, in Otago, some forty years ago certain sheep on one of the runs—probably the progeny of a single ram—were found to be evidently short-winded. Apparently the action of the heart was defective, for when these sheep were driven they would run with the rest of the flock for a short distance, and then lie down panting. The result of this peculiar affection was that at nearly every mustering these short-winded sheep used to be left behind, being unable to be driven with the rest. Sometimes they were brought on more slowly afterwards, but if it happened to be shearing-time they were simply caught and shorn where they lay. As a result of this peculiar condition a form of artificial selection was set up, the vigorous, active sheep being constantly drafted away for sale, &c., while this defective strain increased with great rapidity throughout the district, for whenever the mobs were mustered for the market, shearing, or drafting, these “cranky sheep,” as they came to be called, were left behind.
This defective character appeared in every succeeding generation, and seemed to increase in force, reminding one of the Ancon sheep referred to by Darwin. At first, of course, the character was not recognized as hereditary, but as the numbers of this “cranky” breed increased to a very great extent, and spread over the district, it came at last to be recognized as a local variety. When the runs on which these sheep were abundant were cut up and sold, or released in smaller areas, the purchasers found it necessary, for the protection of their own interests, to exterminate the variety, of which hundreds were found straggling over the country. This was easily and effectively done in the following manner: As soon as a sheep of this variety was observed it was pursued, but after running for a couple of hundred yards at a great rate of speed it would drop down panting behind a big stone or other shelter, and seemed incapable for a time of rising and renewing its flight. It was immediately destroyed, and in this manner a useless—but to the naturalist a very interesting—variety was eliminated.
Sheep were introduced into the Chatham Islands in the early “forties,” but as late as 1855 there were only about two hundred of them. When sheep-stations were organized in 1866 there were about two thousand on the island, and by 1900 they had increased to about sixty thousand, and by this time a great many had become wild. Dr. Cockayne says they have profoundly altered the native vegetation by eating out many characteristic species of plants, such as Myosotidium nobile, Aciphylla Traversii, Veronica Dieffenbachii, and allied species, all of which they eat greedily.
On the Auckland Islands sheep have been liberated at various times since 1890, and on the Antipodes between 1886 and 1900, for the benefit of shipwrecked mariners, but they either died off or were killed by castaways. They were also liberated on Campbell Island between 1888 and 1890. In 1896 the island was taken up as a sheep-run—a piece of vandalism on the part of the men who did it and the Government which granted it—and in 1903 there were about 4,500 sheep on it. The changes produced in the vegetation have been described and discussed at length by Dr. Cockayne. In 1907, according to Mr. R. M. Laing, there were some eight thousand sheep on the island, and the transformation and destruction of the native flora was going on at a great rate.
Wild Goats.
The introduction of goats dates from Captain Cook’s second voyage. He says in his journal, “On June 2, 1773, I sent on shore on the east side of the sound [Queen Charlotte Sound] two goats, male and female. The former was something more than a year old, but the latter was much older. She had two fine kids some time before we arrived in Dusky Bay, which were killed by cold.” Forster in his journal says they were left by Captain Furneaux in an unfrequented part of East Bay, “this place being fixed on in hopes that they would there remain unmolested by the Natives, who, indeed, were the only enemies they had to fear.”
On the third voyage the “Resolution” was in Queen Charlotte Sound from the 12th to the 25th February, 1777, and Captain Cook says, “I gave Matahouah two goats (a male and a female with kid) and to Tomatongeauooranuc two pigs (a boar and a sow). They made me a promise not to kill them, though I must own I put no great faith in this. The animals which Captain Furneaux sent on shore here, and which soon after fell into the hands of the Natives, I was now told were all dead.”