(Aciphylla spp.).

The cosmopolitan carrot family or Umbelliferae is well represented in New Zealand. The largest genus is the peculiar and distinctive spear-grass one. It contains nearly 40 species, all of which are confined to this country. Only two others occur in the genus and both are found in the Australian Alps. The native ones are found in tussock grassland and are particularly characteristic of alpine vegetation. There are early records from explorers of almost impenetrable thickets of spear grasses and Irishman, but these were destroyed by fire to make way for sheep. Sheep, together with rabbits, keep the plants down, but these quickly reappear once the animals are taken off the country.

Leaves are swordlike and tipped by spines, while the long flowering stalks carry spiny bracts. The species are difficult to identify. Some of them are connected by intermediate forms, while hybrids are certain to occur. A. colensoi, taramea, is found in montane and subalpine vegetation in both islands. It has stout stems up to 3 ft tall, with leaves 1 to 2 ft long and about half an inch or more wide. The whole plant resembles a mass of bayonet-like spines. The flowers are small, greenish-yellow and are arranged in small umbels along a stout, erect stem which can be 6 ft or more long. A. squarrosa is a much smaller plant, and the Maoris obtained a prized scent from its resinous gum.

Some of the species, especially the alpine ones, are quite small and some have very limited distributions. Thus A. polita of the Tararua Range and northern mountains of the South Island is often under 6 in. tall. The leaves are divided two to three times. A. monroi is a small tufted plant in the mountains of the upper half of the South Island. The leaves are pinnate.

by Alec Lindsay Poole, M.SC., B.FOR.SC., F.R.S.N.Z., Director-General of Forests, Wellington.

by Samuel Harvey Franklin, B.COM.GEOG., M.A.(BIRMINGHAM), Senior Lecturer, Geography Department, Victoria University of Wellington.

• New Zealand Geographer, Vol. 7, Apr 1951, “Pastoral Murihiku”, Critchfield, H. J.
• Economic Geography, Vol. 30, Oct 1954, “The Growth of Pastoralism in Southland”
• N.Z. Journal of Agriculture, Vol. 88, Aug 1949, “Farming in New Zealand – Southland”, Stuart, A.

During the past decade the number of sheep shorn increased by 31.44 per cent, a figure close to the national rate of 29.82 per cent, and the number of lambs shorn increased by 303.78 per cent (New Zealand, 66.73 per cent). But the increase in the labour force engaged in manufacturing, 14.75 per cent (1953–61), and of the total labour force, 10.75 per cent, was well below the respective national rates of 21.14 and 18.42 per cent. It is noticeable that between 1911 and 1951 Southland was consistently a region of marked emigration. The high proportion of the population resident in rural areas, 46.29 per cent, and engaged in primary industries 26.17 per cent, suggests the pre-eminently agrarian character of Southland's economy. The existing industries either exploit the natural resources, such as the beech forests or the limestone deposits, or are closely associated with the processing of agricultural products or providing for the needs of the farming community. The structure of Bluff's trade is that of an agricultural district, 65,202 tons of frozen meat, 29,298 tons of wool, being shipped in overseas vessels: 75,518 tons of motor spirit and 59,776 tons of manures were unloaded out of a total inwards traffic of 175,846 tons (1960).

Apart from Invercargill and Bluff, which together account for 39.89 per cent of the regional population, Gore is the only sizable town of the district. One of the striking characteristics of the region's settlement pattern is the prevalence of small marketing centres (population figures for 1961): Winton, 1,473; Tuatapere, 872; Wyndham, 679; Edendale, 607; Lumsden, 666; Makarewa, 465; Riverside, 393; Woodlands, 363; Wallacetown, 319; Mossburn, 273; Tokanui, 227; Balfour, 246; Browns, 273.

In terms of capital investment the biggest industrial scheme upon Southland's economic horizon is the project to produce hydro-electricity from the waters of Lakes Te Anau and Manapouri in order to supply power to the national grid system and to an aluminium-smelting plant located probably near Bluff. Arguing from the basis of cheap and abundant hydro-electricity, the joint State and private venture aims at producing, not before 1971, an initial 100,000 kW of electricity and, at a later but unstated date, 120,000 tons of aluminium, the bauxite being shipped from Queensland. A £150–million project cannot but be impressive and certainly it brings the margins of uninhabited Fiordland into the national economy in a dramatic manner. The impact of the scheme upon Southland's economy ought to be considerable, but its precise effects remain a matter of conjecture, as in fact does the execution of the whole project, because of the world market situation for aluminium.

Southland has important reserves of sub-bituminous coal and lignite and in 1960 produced 364,050 tons, 12.08 per cent of the national output, a proportion which has doubled since 1910. State enterprise prevails in the underground mines, but in the opencast mines private enterprise accounts for the majority of the output. The principal mining areas are concentrated around Ohai, though lignite is worked by the opencast system near Mataura. Most of the production is consumed within the region or in adjacent Otago.

The average annual rate of increase for Southland's population during the next two decades is forecast at 2.5 per cent, a rate well above the national forecast, the growth being concentrated in the Invercargill and Bluff area. This, to say the least, is an optimistic forecast, which to be achieved requires a marked acceleration in economic growth that certainly cannot be produced by an expansion in the pastoral sector alone; it therefore rests upon the less assured prospects of industrial development.

Undeveloped land of 150,000 acres, approximately half under partly milled bush, the remainder under tussock, are located in the upper Waiau, the Hokonui district, and the swamp coastal zone of the Seaward Moss, south-west of Invercargill. The partially developed land, 644,500 acres, is located in addition to the foregoing areas in the Birchwood-Nightcaps and the Otaraia-Waiarikiki districts. The State has acquired 220,769 acres for development, which ranks Southland as the second largest land-development area in the Dominion; but the immature stage of the development schemes, markedly contrasting with the situation in the Central Plateau, is revealed by the low figure for alienations, 2,206 acres. The major scheme is located between Lakes Te Anau and Manapouri, where currently 148,000 acres are undergoing development, the aim being to establish 500–acre farms carrying between 1,000 and 1,500 ewes and replacements and including 30 to 40 run cattle: 4,400 acres are being developed also on the Seaward Moss, where some private development, aided by the Marginal Lands Act, is also occurring.

But the listing of principal dairying districts has one grave fault of underplaying the very strong trend during the past 20 years towards sheep farming and the tendency of the dairy farms to carry an increasing number of sheep. Perhaps the most unique feature of Southland farming is the farm which contains both a milking and a shearing shed. Since 1921–22 the ratio of cows in milk per hundred sheep shorn for Southland county has fallen from 6.03 to 0.54; the cows in milk numbers have fallen by 58.83 per cent and the regional figure has fallen by 57.06 per cent. Despite the fact that the dairying industry was first established in Southland (with the building of the Edendale cheese factory in 1881), the contribution to national production, both in absolute and in relative terms, has fallen from 3.3 per cent in 1934–38, when 12,753,000 lb of butterfat were processed, to 1.3 per cent in 1959–60, when 6,222,000 lb were processed. Inevitably the export of cheese through Bluff has declined from 13,777 tons in 1930 (a high-point year) to 4,990 tons in 1960. These developments can be regarded only with favour. The decline in production has been associated with greater efficiency per cow and, of greater significance, production has swung away from those commodities whose marketing future appears bleak.

The productivity of Southland's farming is at times astonishing. Admittedly the following statistics refer to one of the most advanced farms and their utility is reduced by the absence of income and expenditure figures. For instance, a 234–acre diversified farm in the Edendale Plain worked by the manager and one permanent labourer carried 35 Friesian milk cows and replacements, 1,050 Romney ewes and replacements, and approximately 15 to 20 Aberdeen Angus for fattening. Butterfat production averaged 400 lb per cow, wool clips 11 lb per sheep, and the lambing percentage was 125. Considering that on the plain the average carrying capacity is about 3.5 ewe equivalents per grassed acre, and that a capacity of five to six ewes is not uncommon, there seems little cause to doubt the projected 24–per-cent increase in sheep numbers during the next two decades. A much higher rate of increase is projected for the partially developed areas (326 per cent), where the number of sheep is likely to increase from 377,900 in 1960 to 1,612,800 by 1980, when, in addition, the at present undeveloped areas should be carrying 932,000 sheep. On the high-country runs sheep numbers are forecast to increase by 27 per cent, from 312,400 to 398,000, a development that will be dependent in part upon the utilisation of better management practices, aerial topdressing and oversowing, and in part upon a large extension of pasture-regeneration methods carried out in field trials at Mid Dome; trials so ecologically oriented that financial considerations have hardly entered the experiments.

Amongst the principal meteorological stations Invercargill holds a few records – the lowest mean annual temperature, 49.1° F, the lowest annual average of bright sunshine hours, 1,661, and the highest average of rain days, 199. With an annual rainfall of 42.8 in., the effectiveness of precipitation during the summer period is high and pastures do not dry out; but in the winter months the pastures are closed off and winter feeding is undertaken between mid-June and early spring. Frosts are severe in winter; Gore averages 114 per annum and they extend into spring, delaying spring growth. To meet these contingencies root crops and cereals are sown for supplementary feed, very little being sold off the farm. In the 1959–60 season approximately one-eighth (183,199 acres) of the one and a half million acres of cultivated land was cropped for fodder.

The lowest rainfall is experienced in the Five Rivers, Waimea, and Waikaka districts, which are the principal fat-lamb-producing areas. Towards the coast and westwards, rainfall increases, and along the general line of the Mataura, especially between Gore and Mataura and around Wyndham and Edendale, dairying prevails, in association with fat-lamb production. Other dairying areas are concentrated between Invercargill and Wyndham, around Otautau, on the Aparima River, and Tuatapere, on the River Waiau. In the Southland Plain the principal areas of fat-lamb production are the Morton Mains, Woodlands, the Dipton, and the Drummond districts.

A small-scale land-classification map is the best guide to the economic geography of Southland. The mountainous country, including the Eyre (summit, 6,650 ft) and the Garvie (summit, 6,086 ft) Mountains, is shown as the southernmost extent of the belt of high-country farming, with outliers appearing in the Takitimu Mountains (summit, 5,559 ft) and the Hokonui Hills. Fringing the uplands is an extensive but interrupted swath of undeveloped and partially developed land with marked concentrations in four areas: along the eastern shores of Lakes Manapouri and To Anau — in fact the upper Waiau valley; on the eastern and southern sides of the Takitimus and west of Nightcaps; around the Hokonui Hills, especially the southern side; and a stretch of coastal country east of Invercargill and extending towards the Catlins.

The central portion of Southland contains the developed land where, in three major lowland districts, the most advanced and intensive farming is practised. Enclosed between the high country and the Hokonui Hills, and drained principally by the Waimea and the upper Oreti and Mataura Rivers, are the Five Rivers and Waimea Plains. Extending west from the Mataura River to the Aparima River is the Southland Plain, its eastern portion being known as the Edendale Plain. East of the Longwood Range lies the plain of the lower Waiau.

The plains are composed of alluvial gravels, the Southland Plain being formed by the coalescing fans of the southward-flowing rivers. Silt loams, clay loams, loess soils, and some recent silts constitute the principal soil types and, in the majority of cases, liming and drainage have proved to be indispensable to their productive development. This is in part a response to the leaching caused by high rainfall and to the original deficiencies of the podzolised yellow-brown earths and especially of the moderately acid yellow-grey earths of the Five Rivers and Waimea districts; whilst the low gradient of the plains and the resultant subsoil clay pan formation explains the need for drainage. The climate is responsible for the other principal feature of Southland farming, the provision of adequate winter feed, and the distribution of the rainfall within the region underlies some of the contrasts in the farming systems.

Southland is the southernmost region of New Zealand and its most productive parts are the plains which extend approximately from the Waiau River in the west towards the provincial boundary which in the east reaches the coast near Waikawa. The plains are contained within the limits of Southland and Wallace counties, whereas Lake county is mountainous, including some of the southernmost ranges of the Southern Alps. Strictly, the limits of Southland are confined to the area covered by these three counties; but to complete the account given in the statistical tables Fiord and Stewart Island counties have been included, though they are discussed elsewhere. Invercargill (Urban Area population, 41,088, 1961) is the largest city of the region which had a total population in 1961 of 96,835 (4 per cent of the national population) of which 1.32 per cent were registered as Maoris.

Symbolic representations of the Cross, such as on national flags, show either four or five stars; and often the question is raised as to just how many stars are in the constellation. The four main stars give the cross effect, although the cross-member is somewhat askew. The fifth next brightest star is something of an interloper. Examination by the naked eye on a very clear night will reveal about 34 stars within the modern boundaries of the constellation, but with telescopes the number must run into many thousands. It is correct to say, however, that there are five principal stars. Two bright stars on one side of the Cross are often referred to as the Pointers, since the imaginary line joining them appears to point towards the constellation. They are, however, members of the constellation Centaurus, the brighter one (Alpha Centauri or Rigil Kent) being the closest star to our sun. Light travelling at 186,000 miles per second takes four and one-third years to reach us from it.

One of the very rich and highly interesting portions of the Milky Way passes through the Southern Cross, and examination by the naked eye shows many condensations which break up into magnificent clouds of stars when viewed through binoculars or a small telescope. Close by Beta Crucis is a magnificent telescopic star cluster known as the Jewel Casket, since it contains stars of varied brightness and colours. Adjacent to Alpha and Beta Crucis is a large, dark, cloud-like area, from which stars appear to be absent as seen by the naked eye. Popularly known as the Coal Sack, it is a cloud of gas and dust obscuring the light from the more distant stars of the Milky Way which silhouettes its outline.

The principal stars of the Southern Cross (scientifically called Crux) are given in the following table:

Alpha Crucis (sometimes called Acrux) is a triple star, the two principal components having magnitudes of 1.58 and 2.09. Gamma Crucis is a double star, and noticeably of an orange colour to the naked eye. Positive radial velocity values indicate that a star is receding from us, and negative values indicate that it is approaching us. Such values have been determined spectroscopically.

by Ivan Leslie Thomsen, F.R.A.S.(LOND.), Director, Carter Observatory, Wellington.

On his celebrated voyage round the Cape of Good Hope in 1497, Vasco da Gama was much impressed by what appeared to be a new group of southern stars which we today know as the Southern Cross. But Vespucci after his third voyage in 1501 insisted that he was the first European to see it and called it Mandorla in reference to the oblong glory surrounding the bodies of saints ascending to Heaven. Sixteenth century writers on navigation made frequent mention of the constellation. Curiously enough Dante has reference to it in his Divine Comedy, although it is certain that at the time he could not have seen it from Italy. It would appear, therefore, that he heard of it from travellers' reports. At the present time the Cross is always visible from all New Zealand latitudes and is a circumpolar constellation. In Australia, however, for latitudes north of the Tropic of Capricorn, it is below the horizon at lower culmination.

Owing to the 26,000–year precessional movement of the earth's axis, the Cross has in the past been visible from the Northern Hemisphere. Some 5,000 years ago it would have been seen from such countries as France, Spain, and Italy. The great Alexandrian astronomer Ptolemy in the second century concluded that the stars were part of the larger constellation of the Centaur, and celestial maps continued to depict them in this fashion until about the fifteenth century A.D. There is no knowledge as to who first depicted them as a Cross, but they are shown in this fashion on a globe made in 1592 by Mollineaux in England. Another interesting coincidence is that the Cross would have been visible on the horizon of Jerusalem during the period in which the Crucifixion took place.

In the course of 24 hours the Cross makes a complete circuit in the heavens around an invisible point known as the South Celestial Pole. This is the point where the projection of the earth's axis appears to pierce the heavens, and which would be in the zenith to an observer at the South Geographical Pole. The result of this diurnal motion is that the Cross may be seen upright and high in the southern sky at upper culmination, or inverted and very low on the southern horizon at lower culmination. Between these two positions the cross-upright makes all possible angles with the horizon. An approximation to the true south direction can be made by continuing an imaginary line along the upright right across the southern sky to the bright star Achernar. The half-way point on this line is not far from the South Celestial Pole which is of course the direction of true south.