Before man accidentally and intentionally introduced various mammals into New Zealand, the only native land mammals were two species of native bats. The white settlers introduced animals for sentiment or for sport; later, the belief developed that New Zealand's native flora and fauna must eventually be replaced by the European. There was thus a vigorous policy of acclimatisation lasting from the 1840s to the first quarter of the present century. Some 53 exotic mammals were introduced (most of them deliberately) and of these 31 are at present living in a free state. Those deliberately introduced include the wallaby, opossum, stoat, ferret, weasel, eight species of deer, thar, chamois, rabbit, hare, and hedgehog. Species released in the eighteenth century by Captain Cook or which have escaped and become feral, include the pig, goat, cattle, sheep, and horse.

Most animals are now widespread; and many have greatly affected the soils and vegetation and the economic welfare of New Zealand. An outline of the history, present status, and control of these animals is given in this article, which will deal in turn with animals of the following orders: Marsupialia, Insectivora, Carnivora, Rodentia, Lagomorpha, and Ungulata. Most species came from Europe. The successful liberations by country of origin are shown in the diagram above.

(c. 1790–1887).

Maori chief and warrior.

A new biography of Te Mamaku, Hemi Topine appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

A principal chief of Ngati Haua te Rangi tribe of the Wanganui River, Te Mamaku had tribal links with Ngati Maniapoto of the King Country and Ngati Awa of Taranaki. With these tribal ties, and occupying a strategic position at Tuhua which controlled the passage of the Wanganui River region, he was a chief of influence. A proverbial saying described this power: “If you withdraw the plug of Tuhua you will be overwhelmed by the flooding hordes of the north”.

Te Mamaku was famous as a fighting chief and Cowan described him as fierce and intrepid. In addition to his prowess in tribal battles he and many of his tribe were noted for the part they took against Europeans in the Wellington district during the period 1845–46 when Wellington itself was threatened. As one of Te Rangihaeata's most able leaders, Te Mamaku led the attack on Boulcott's Farm in the Hutt Valley. After being repulsed he and his party retreated, so relieving the immediate threat to the settlement.

Like some of the old-time Maori, Te Mamaku showed an unpredictable side of his nature. After his return to Wanganui he offered to protect the Pakeha settlers of the small community as he looked upon them as his own. He requested them not to send for soldiers and stated firmly: “If you bring soldiers I will fight them”. When troops were later sent to Wanganui, Te Mamaku and his tribe joined other tribes, attacking and blockading the town on 19 May 1847. After plundering, burning, killing cattle, and skirmishing for two months, Te Mamaku retired up river on 24 July. The actions of Te Mamaku and other chiefs in rebelling were condoned by the Governor in the following year. This decision enabled the Wanganui region to develop in peace for several years. In his later life he was regarded by his people as a chieftain of highest rank, a man of dignity and influence, a warrior of fame and fierce spirit. As a venerable rangatira, he was accorded the honorific title of “The Great Fish in the Net”. To the European administrators of the mid-nineteenth century, Te Mamaku represented a direct challenge to the success of the struggling settlements at Wellington and Wanganui; to the Maori of his kin he was a local patriot, justified in his actions and admired for his spirit. He died in June 1887 at the village of Tawhata, in the upper Wanganui River, reputedly aged nearly 100 years.

by John Bruce Palmer, B.A., Curator, Fiji Museum, Suva.

(1873–1954).

Professor of physiology in the University of Otago.

A new biography of Malcolm, John appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

John Malcolm was born in Thurso in the north of Scotland in 1873, the son of John Malcolm, a crofter. He was educated at the local school where subsequently, at the age of 14, he served as a pupil teacher for four years. In 1892 he went to Edinburgh to study medicine. He had a distinguished undergraduate career, gaining the Neil Arnold Prize in 1893, the Grierson Bursary in 1894, and the Vans Dunlop Scholarship in 1896. He graduated in 1897, when he at once entered the physiological department of Edinburgh University under Professor Rutherford. In 1899 he took the degree of M.D. with first-class honours. On the death of Professor Rutherford in 1899 he was appointed to the junior staff of the department under Professor Schafer and, later in 1902, to a Lectureship in Chemical Physiology in the same department. In 1905 he was appointed to the Chair of Physiology in the University of Otago, a position which he held for 43 years.

For many years he taught single-handed the subjects of physiology, biochemistry, and histology. It was not until 1910 that he secured the services of a technician and not until 1914 the services of a part-time professional assistant. As a teacher he was sound, thorough, and capable, and his students regarded him with affection and respect. He played a full part in the work of the university, being at one time chairman of the Professorial Board, a member of the University Senate, and Acting Dean of the Medical School. He also commanded the Medical Section of the University Officers' Training Corps.

He was always active in nutritional research and was a foundation member of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, and the chairman of the Nutrition Research Committee of the Medical Research Council.

In 1911, at Dunedin, Professor Malcolm married Frances Harriet Victoria Simpson of Dunedin, by whom he had three children, a daughter and two sons who both qualified in medicine, one now being professor of physiology, University of Aberdeen.

Malcolm was a man full of kindness and courtesy, of transparent integrity, which compelled affection and respect with his students and colleagues alike. His main interests centred in his family and in the subject of physiology. He worked hard for 67 years – from the age of 14 until his death on 17 June 1954, in his eighty-first year.

by Charles Ernest Hercus, KT., D.S.O., O.B.E., U.D., M.B. CH.B.(N.Z.), M.D., D.P.H., B.D.S., F.R.C.P., F.R.A.C.P., F.R.A.C.S., Emeritus Professor, University of Otago.

• Annals of the University of Otago Medical School, 1875–1939, Carmalt-Jones, D. W. (1945)
• The Otago Medical School Under the First Three Deans, Hercus, C. E., and Bell, F. G. (1964).

(1832–1912).

Soldier, Resident Magistrate, and Judge of the Native Land Court.

William Gilbert Mair was born at Te Wahapu, Bay of Islands, on 20 November 1832. He was a son of Gilbert Mair, a trader and early resident who settled in the Bay in 1824, and was educated by a private tutor, John Fogan, and, later, at Te Waimate Mission Station, by the Rev. Richard Taylor, and at St. John's College, Auckland.

After some years on his father's farm at Whangarei, Mair spent three years on the Australian goldfields, returning to Whangarei in 1855. When the Waikato War commenced he joined the Colonial Defence Force, under Colonel Marmaduke Nixon, with the rank of Ensign. Acting as interpreter to General Cameron, he first took part in the fighting round Pukekohe and, later, at Rangiriri and most other engagements during the campaign. He showed great courage at Rangiaowhia in assisting to remove under heavy fire Colonel Nixon, who had been fatally wounded. During the siege of Orakau pa he was directed to call on the defenders to surrender and received the historic reply: “Friend, I will fight against you for ever, for ever”, and, later, when he urged that the women and children be sent out: “If the men die, the women and children must die also”.

In 1864, after promotion to Lieutenant, he was appointed Resident Magistrate at Taupo and, later, at Rotorua. In 1865 he was gazetted Major in the New Zealand Militia in command of the Arawa auxiliary force operating against the rebel Hauhaus in the Bay of Plenty. During a swift campaign he captured all the coastal pas and finally broke the enemy resistance by taking the strong Te Teko pa in a brilliant action resulting in the capture of the Maori prophet Horomona and 127 men. From 1866 to 1871 he was Resident Magistrate at Opotiki and had to deal with Te Kooti's forces which raided the district from their strongholds in the Urewera. When Whakatane was attacked Mair assisted in driving off the Hauhaus and pursued Te Kooti to the Urewera border. When, following this raid, the Government decided on the Urewera campaign Mair was placed in charge of 180 Maori auxiliaries attached to St. John's column, which moved up the Whakatane Valley. He took part in the capture of Orangikawa pa and was entrusted with the difficult operation of bringing out the wounded when the Government forces withdrew. In 1870 Mair was appointed Registrar at Tauranga and, subsequently, was placed in charge of the Bay of Plenty district.

In the following year Mair was stationed at Alexandra (Pirongia) as Native Agent entrusted with the task of reconciling the hostile Maoris who had taken refuge in the King Country. In 1873 he was appointed Resident Magistrate in the Waikato. Over a period of 10 years Mair endeavoured with infinite patience and tact to establish a friendly relationship with King Tawhiao, Rewi, Wahanui, and other disaffected chiefs, visiting them at their headquarters at Te Kuiti, until in July 1881 Tawhiao came to Alexandra and made submission. During his residence at Alexandra, Mair married Janet Cathcart Black, of Sydney, on 15 May 1872.

After the successful conclusion of his King Country mission Mair was, in 1882, appointed a Judge of the Native Land Court, a post for which his knowledge of the Maori language, custom, and usage admirably fitted him. He presided over many important cases, including large Rotorua claims and the Rohe Potae case affecting a million and a half acres of Waikato and contiguous land. He was retired in 1891, but reinstated in 1894 by the Seddon Government and served until his final retirement in 1909. In 1899 he was in Samoa as Consul for a short term, during which he dealt with claims for compensation for losses sustained by British residents during political disturbances. After retirement he farmed a leasehold run at Rerewhakaaitu until his death at Rotorua on 8 July 1912. He left two sons and a daughter.

During his 50 years in Government offices Mair rendered most valuable service to his country. In the military forces he was noted for his calmness, courage, and sound judgment, and he led his forces with spectacular success. The Maoris, friendly and rebel alike, had great respect for him and confidence in his sense of justice, and this, more than any other factor, made possible the successful outcome of his patient and tactful negotiations with the Maori King, resulting in the opening of the King Country to European settlement.

by George Conrad Petersen, Editor, Who's Who in New Zealand, Palmerston North.

• Journals (MSS), Turnbull Library
• Annals of a New Zealand Family, Jackson, J. H. (1935)
• The Mair Family, Andersen, J. C., Petersen, G. C. (1956).

(1843–1923).

Soldier and civil servant

A new biography of Mair, Gilbert appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Gilbert Mair was a son of Gilbert Mair, an early settler and trader of the Bay of Islands, who later removed to Whangarei. Mair was born on his father's farm at Deveron, Whangarei, on 10 January 1843. During his early youth he assisted his father in his kauri gum export business, in the course of which he came to know many of the Arawa tribe who had come north to the gum-fields from the Rotorua district. He became a fluent Maori linguist and took a keen interest in the race, its traditions, history, and customs.

In 1860 Mair was articled to the Surveyor-General at Auckland and gained a provincial surveyor's certificate in 1864. He was acting as Clerk of Court and interpreter at the Resident Magistrate's Court at Tauranga when the Paimarire cult spread to the Bay of Plenty and fighting broke out. He immediately volunteered for active service, joining Colonel Haultain's Waikato Regiment. His natural military talent and knowledge of bush-craft soon brought him into prominence. During seven years of service in the field he took part in many actions, often in association with his elder brother Major W. G. Mair. His first action was at Irihanga and Whakamarama, and during the latter engagement, under heavy fire, he rescued a mortally wounded soldier. For this he was mentioned in dispatches. He took part in the savage fighting which followed on the Hautere plateau, and for gallantry in leading an attack on the enemy rifle pits at Te Taumata was promoted to Ensign. In a brilliant lone scouting expedition he ascertained that a large enemy force had gone off in the direction of Rotorua. With a small force he managed to reach Ohinemutu just as the Hauhaus arrived and, after a fierce fight, drove them back and later captured Puraku pa, held by the main body under Kihitu. He was promoted to Lieutenant on 25 April 1867.

In January 1868 Mair accompanied Hon. W. Rolleston to Chatham Islands to take charge of the Maori prisoners there, but was so dissatisfied at the conditions that he refused the position. While there he met Te Kooti. Their next encounter was when he assisted Major Mair to drive him back into the Urewera after the raid on Whakatane.

When the Government decided to attack the Hauhaus on their ground, Mair was placed in charge of a force of Arawa and attached to Colonel George Whitmore's column, which advanced on Ruatahuna by way of Ahikereru and the Tarapounamu Range. Acting as advance guard to the column Mair's force stormed Te Harema pa. After the junction with Colonel St. John's force at Ruatahuna, Mair was dispatched to ascertain what had happened to Colonel Herrick's force, which was to have come via Waikaremoana, but he soon ran into Te Kooti's advance guard returning from a raid on Mohaka and, after a brisk engagement, drove it back. In February 1870 when Te Kooti, after a fruitless visit to the Maori King to solicit support, attacked Rotorua, Mair again intercepted the Hauhaus in the nick of time and prevented a massacre of the inhabitants. In a long running fight he inflicted heavy casualties on the raiders and shot Peka Makarini, Te Kooti's notorious lieutenant. This bold and successful action, which Whitmore regarded as the turning point of the war, earned Mair promotion to Captain and the New Zealand Cross, awarded to him on 1 April 1886. From 1870 to 1872 he was continually engaged in the Urewera campaign harrying Te Kooti and his diminishing band in the rugged forest country which was now their only refuge. At Waipaoa he found the Hauhaus in a fortified camp which he attacked, driving out the enemy with loss and all but capturing Te Kooti himself.

After Te Kooti's escape to the King Country and the close of the war, Mair was appointed interpreter to the House of Representatives. He also gave valuable service as a land-purchase officer. For different periods he acted as Government agent at Tauranga, president of the Ikaroa Maori Land Board, member of the Arawa Maori council, and Native Resident Magistrate. In 1881 he acted as aide-de-camp to Lieutenant-Colonel Roberts at Parihaka.

During a period of 50 years following the close of hostilities, Mair served as guide to many notable visitors to Rotorua, including Sir George Grey and successive Governors, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Earl of Pembroke, Mark Twain, G. A. Sala, Trollope, and J. A. Froude. He married Katherine Sperry in 1888 and they had one daughter. After the termination of his position as interpreter, Mair farmed at Foxton, Waihi, Rerewhakaaitu, and Ohope. He died at Tauranga on 29 November 1923.

Gilbert Mair was perhaps the most colourful officer in the Colonial forces during the final stages of the Maori War. An expert Maori linguist with a profound knowledge of the people and their background, he was particularly well adapted to his tasks, both civil and military. Possessed of great courage, skill in bushcraft, and a tireless and athletic physique, he instilled a sense of devotion in his picked Maori force that rendered it a formidable instrument in subduing the desperate and fanatical followers of Te Kooti. Mair was the only European to be admitted to full chieftainship of the Arawa tribe, of which he remained a stout champion until his death.

by George Conrad Petersen, Editor, Who's Who in New Zealand, Palmerston North.

• Journals (MSS) Turnbull Library
• The Mair Family, Andersen, J. C., Petersen, G. C. (1956)
• Annals of a New Zealand Family, Jackson, J. H. (1935).

(c. 1848–?)

Apocalyptic prophet.

A new biography of Te Mahuki appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Te Mahuki, or Mahuki of the Red Plume, was born about 1848. He lived at Te Kumi, about 3 miles from Te Kuiti, and was a minor chief of the Ngati Kinohaku subtribe of Ngati Maniapoto. In the late 1870s he went to Parihaka where he was deeply influenced by Te Whiti's teachings. He was one of Te Whiti's ploughmen and was among those imprisoned. When the Government expelled the Waikatos from Parihaka, at the time of Te Whiti's arrest, Te Mahuki returned to the Waikato, declared himself to be Te Whiti's representative, and transformed Te Kumi into a replica of Parihaka.

Te Mahuki then founded a new religion based on the Old Testament and the Book of Revelations and closely allied to Te Whiti's doctrines. He taught that the Maori could never oust the Pakeha by force, but that by the correct interpretation of scriptural signs and by the careful observance of divine commands the faithful would yet triumph. His sect called themselves Tekau-ma-rua (the “twelve apostles”). Because he accepted Te Whiti's views on the Maori land question, Te Mahuki gained many followers among the extreme anti-Pakeha faction of the “King” tribes. In March 1883, at Te Uira, Te Mahuki stopped Hursthouse's survey of the proposed Main Trunk railway. A little later, in an effort to win the “King” tribes from Tawhiao, he attempted to occupy Alexandra (Pirongia) by force. This proved unsuccessful and the prophet received 12 months' imprisonment. His experiences in Mount Eden gaol led him to advocate imprisonment as a convenient form of martyrdom.

Early in 1890 Te Mahuki prophesied that the Maori millenium would dawn on 2 November 1890. Accordingly, on 21 October he and his followers “occupied” Te Kuiti in anticipation of that day. The Government acted promptly and a police party went to Te Kuiti and arrested him. He was tried in Auckland on 9 December 1890 and was sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment with hard labour, which cured him of his predilection for this form of martyrdom. Moreover, the failure of his prophecy discredited him in his followers' eyes.

by Bernard John Foster, M.A., Research Officer, Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington.

• Appendices to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1883, G.1
• Auckland Tribune, 25 Oct 1890
• New Zealand Herald, 23 Oct

(Melicytus ramiflorus). This is one of the tree members of the widely spread violet family. The genus Melicytus has only four species, of which mahoe occurs in Norfolk, Tonga, and Fiji Islands as well as in New Zealand. It is a small, much-branched tree growing to a height of about 30 ft. In open lowland and lower montane forest throughout the country it is one of the commonest trees. It frequently starts as an epiphyte on tree ferns. The bark is a whitish colour and the branchlets very brittle. Leaves are light green, 3–5 in. long, oblong-lanceolate and with small, blunt teeth. They are readily eaten by stock and other introduced animals, particularly the Australian opossum. Flowers are very small and appear on the thick branches. The fruit is a small purple berry.

M. macropyhllus, a tree in lowland to lower montane forest from Northland to about the centre of the North Island, is closely related to mahoe. The main difference is in the larger coarser leaves from 5 to 7 or 8 in. long. Another New Zealand species, M. lanceolatus, has narrow lanceolate leaves. There is a fourth species which is a shrub with small leaves.

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

Mahia Peninsula, Isthmus, Beach, and township all lie at the north-eastern end of Hawke Bay, on the east coast of the North Island. The peninsula, 13½ miles long and 7 miles wide, rises to its highest point at Te Kapu, 1,302 ft. It is composed of soft rocks ranging in age from upper Cretaceous to uppermost Tertiary, the youngest in the west and and the oldest in the east. The younger rocks of Waitotaran (upper Pliocene) age contain thick beds of water-laid pumice, and dip gently south-west into Hawke Bay. The isthmus is tied to the mainland near Opoutama by a beach and dunesand ridge. The area is deservedly a popular seaside resort. The chief activity of the area is sheep farming with some beef cattle. Maori legend states that Whatonga, who came to New Zealand in search of his grandfather, Toi, settled at Mahia. Portland Island, the site of a lighthouse, is a small island off the southern tip of Mahia Peninsula. The name Mahia means “indistinct sound”.

by Thomas Ludovic Grant-Taylor, M.SC., New Zealand Geological Survey, Lower Hutt.

Still there was no exclusion of those without legal training, but the Act of 1893 for the first time divided the Courts' jurisdiction into “ordinary”, “extended”, and “special”; it could be said that the writing was definitely on the wall as far as the lay Magistrate was concerned. The Magistrates' Courts Act of 1908 finally put the seal on the matter. From henceforth all Stipendiary Magistrates were required to be qualified barristers or solicitors.

Thus it can be said that the Magistrates' Court Bench as it functions today is not much more than 50 years old. That it has attained the position in the community which the public now accords it is a tribute to the ability, integrity, and diligence of those who have served, and continue to serve, on it. Today the roll of Magistrates for the whole of New Zealand varies from 35 to 40, whereas in those far-off days, now fortunately gone, the Resident Magistrates never numbered fewer than 60, and could sometimes muster a tally of 70 and more. Considering the growth of jurisdiction, the Magistrates' Courts today deserve well of the community they serve.

by Ronald Jones, Journalist and Script Writer, New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation, Wellington.

Granted that a fierce light of criticism beat upon all who held judicial office, there were apparently some strange Magistrates in the days before laymen were excluded from the Bench. It was a heartless, critical, unforgiving age. The minutest of errors by these instruments of justice seems to have been viewed through a magnifying glass of what Sam Weller used to call “hextra power”. And no quarter was given. “Blundering ignorance, bad taste, imbecility, partiality, and peculation” were only some of the choice flowers of speech that were scattered benigno cornu by the newspapers. The extent to which the law and the litigant suffered represents one of the less admirable features of the law in the early days of New Zealand, and the reality of the situation is emphasised by the attacks made on the Courts at a time when the Bench displayed an insatiable predilection for the committal of a wide variety of editors and critics for contempt. That these assaults had a solid basis of truth must be inferred from the fact that the Legislature in the seventies was put to a succession of devices, short of a clean sweep of the magistracy, in an effort to correct the position. The whole trouble was that, even in an era of colonial patronage and political privilege, there was an excess of exceptionable elevations of untried appointees unblessed with legal knowledge or experience, unproved of character, and in some cases lacking in anything more than the most elementary education.

The system in operation at the time entirely ignored a principle fundamental to English law – that legal appointments belonged, as of right, to the legal profession, and that the appointment of laymen to any legal office whatever was a violation of the established rights of the profession. The contemporary public, litigious or otherwise, no less than the whole body of legal practitioners, may indeed congratulate themselves on the liberal and well-reasoned character of the amendments that have been effected by successive enactments of the present century. Of all the changes wrought in the constitution and procedure of Magistrates' Courts, none can have exerted a stronger influence than the exclusion of the layman from the Bench, except, of course, in the case of the modern Justice of the Peace. But statutory insistence on professional qualifications in all Magistrates was a long time arriving. In fact, it was less than half a century ago, within the memory of many present-day practitioners, that the Legislature accepted the principle that the law should be left to the lawyers in the same way that plumbing was left to the plumber.

Resident Magistrates' Courts were first set up in 1846. Their circumscribed jurisdiction was amended and revised in varying degrees from time to time until the enactment of the Resident Magistrates Act of 1867, an amending and consolidating measure which repealed all previous ordinances and statutes relating to such tribunals. The framework of the 1867 Act, even though it was repealed in 1893, is still discernible in contemporary legislation represented by the Magistrates' Courts Act of 1947.

All the early statutes were distinguished from the current law on the subject by the inclusion of three significant words “not necessarily qualified”. In the extreme, the Resident Magistrate required no law, and no official attempt was made to groom him for his office, or encourage him to fit himself for it. Section 4 of the Resident Magistrates Act of 1867 opened the field to “all fit persons, being Justices of the Peace who shall be, and be called, Resident Magistrates”. Twenty-six years later, section 13 of the Magistrates' Courts Act of 1893 merely provided that appointees should be “fit and proper persons” and that they should be called Stipendiary Magistrates. Section 15 of the same Act, however, made a distinction in that no person could be appointed to exercise the extended jurisdiction provided for under the Act who was not a barrister or solicitor, or who had not “for a period of five years at the least been continuously and in a competent manner exercising the extended jurisdiction of the Courts”.