CHAPTER II.
MARSUPIALIA—WALLABIES AND OPOSSUMS.
Numerous attempts have been made to introduce various kinds of marsupials into New Zealand, and several kinds of kangaroos, wallabies, and opossums have been liberated in this country. At the present time there are either three or four species found wild in different parts.
Common Scrub Wallaby; Black-tailed Wallaby (Macropus ualabatus).
Some fifty years ago the late Mr. Studholme got some wallabies either direct from Tasmania or from the Canterbury Acclimatization Society, and these were set free in the neighbourhood of his home at Waimate, in South Canterbury. They very quickly increased, till they numbered thousands. They live in the bush, scrub, and fern about the gullies and gorges. They come out in the evenings to feed in the open ground. Their food consists chiefly of grass, but they are very fond of certain trees, particularly Panax arboreum, which they scratch and bark pretty badly. The skins of those taken in winter make very fine rugs, as the fur is thick and heavy. The flesh is said to be very palatable, and the tails make excellent soup. They are quite large creatures—small kangaroos, in fact—and the old bucks weigh over 60 lb.
About the year 1870 Sir George Grey imported some wallabies from Australia and set them free on Kawau Island. About the same time Mr. John Reed, of Auckland, also imported some, which he liberated on Motutapu Island, whence they have spread to Rangitoto. Those on Kawau increased to such an extent as nearly to eat out the vegetation, and when the property was sold the new owners allowed the wallabies to be killed out wholesale. They have by now been mostly all destroyed. Even in Sir George Grey’s time us many as two hundred would be killed in a single battue. Some got across to the mainland—a swim of three miles—but they cannot be very numerous. They belong to the same species as those so common at Waimate.
