Plant fossils are classified into two groups: (1) macrofossils, which are the larger plant members, such as stems and leaves, usually detached and often fragmented; and (2) microfossils, which are the shells or resistant outer walls of minute plants, such as diatoms, or of pollen grains and spores. Fruits and seeds vary considerably in size and overlap each group.

For several reasons pollen and spores have a particular importance in present-day geological research in New Zealand. (1) Being produced in large numbers, readily dispersed, and highly resistant, they are more often preserved than macrofossils. (2) They occur in sediments of terrestrial origin where no marine fossils are available, often in sufficient numbers for a comparison to be made of the relative abundance of different types. (3) Since they are also deposited in coastal waters and may be found associated with marine organisms they help to “date” sedimentary rocks in relation to marine fossil sequences.

Evidence of Climatic Change

Much of the evidence of climatic change depends on the former occurrence of lowland trees north or south of their present limits, the number of degrees in latitude giving some indication of the magnitude of the climatic difference. Wood and resin, indistinguishable from that of the living kauri, occur in Tertiary lignites in Otago. These show that kauri forests once grew much further south than their present range, and indicate a warmer climate in the Tertiary. Kauri pollen occurs in South Island Upper Miocene to Pliocene deposits, and well-preserved leaves of Oligocene age have been found at Landslip Hill, so that the southern extension of the group to which the kauri belongs is shown by these different fossils – wood, resin, leaves, and pollen. Cone scales from Shag Point (Upper Cretaceous) and Mokoia and Waikawa (Jurassic) show also that the kauri family has had a long history in New Zealand.

Seasonal variation in climate may be shown by differences in growth rings. These are clearly shown in Upper Jurassic fossil woods from Waikawa, Curio Bay, and Waikato Heads. Coniferous wood, which seems to have predominated in the formation of the Tertiary lignites of the South Island, also shows growth rings. (The Tertiary fossil woods, as well as spores and leaf cuticles, are described by W. P. Evans in the N.Z. Journal of Science and Technology, Vol. 9–19, 1928–37.)

Apart from numerous, but small and mostly unclassifiable fragments of Mid-Devonian to Carboniferous age, Paleozoic plant life is represented in New Zealand by plant fossils from the Gore district. The fossils identified are of Permian age and link New Zealand with the supposed ancient southern continent, Gondwanaland, and in particular with Queensland through the occurrence there and in New Zealand of Cladophlebis roylei Arb. (a fern-like plant), Sphenopteris lobifolia Morris (seed-fern), and Neoggerathiopsis hislopii (Bunbury) (a cone-bearing plant).

Links With Modern Ferns

One of the oldest plant microfossils so far named from New Zealand deposits is Osmundacidites wellmani Couper. This Jurassic spore is considered to be related to the living family Osmundaceae, which is represented in New Zealand by three species of Todea. The apparent link between this ancient spore and the modern ferns is supported by other evidence. Fossil stems known as Osmunda dunlopi Kidston and Gwynne-Vaughan, from Waikawa and Kawhia (Jurassic) are evidently closely related. These are of interest on account of their anatomical similarity to modern forms, and they show the extreme slowness with which the family structure has been modified. According to Sinnott (Annals of Botany, 1914) “there is perhaps no other case among vascular plants where there has been so little change from Mesozoic time to the present”. This stability over a period of more than 135 million years is well exemplified by our living Todea barbara (L.) Moore, not only in stem anatomy but also in frond and spore type.

Cladophlebis australis (Morris) is presumed also to be the foliage of an osmundaceous fern. Hence there is a plausible linkage between micro - and macrofossils which has a bearing on the ancestry of certain present-day ferns. The history of the Osmundaceae in New Zealand is extended by the presence of Cladophlebis roylei among the Permian plant fossils mentioned above. Of similar antiquity is Cyathidites, a fern spore which may be ancestral to the modern tree-fern genus Cyathea, the spores of which are common in Quaternary deposits. The black tree fern Cyathea medullaris (Forst. f.) Swartz, the finest of our present-day tree-ferns, appears to be a comparative newcomer in this ancient lineage, since the spores have not been found in deposits older than Upper Miocene, though common in younger deposits.

Character of Earlier Forests

Branchlets from Cretaceous and Eocene beds in the South Island were identified as belonging to the genus Casuarina, which contains the modern sheoaks of Australia and Polynesia. Also believed to represent this genus, and first appearing in the Upper Cretaceous, is Triorites harrisii Couper, a pollen type which is common in most Tertiary assemblages, but became extinct with the onset of the Pleistocene glaciations. The presence of Casuarina suggests that a forest of more open type than today's dense rain forest was prevalent in the warmer epochs of the Tertiary. Important groups in New Zealand Tertiary vegetation were beeches, conifers, and casuarinas.

The oldest dated deposits with the remains of angiosperms (flowering plants with enclosed seeds) are the Mid-Cretaceous beds in the Clarence valley, near Coverham. The pollen grains are of an unspecialised type, but with the three furrows which distinguish them as dicotyledonous. Of the three more specialised pollen types of the southern beeches, two appear during the Cretaceous and the third in the early Tertiary. The first to appear, and the one which became dominant during the Tertiary, represents a section of the genus Nothofagus with living species in New Guinea and New Caledonia, but now extinct in New Zealand. Fossil Fagus (European beech) pollen has not been identified in New Zealand as yet and, as it is of an unspecialised type, confident identification is hardly to be expected. Thus the linkage of the southern beeches, genus Nothofagus, with the Northern Hemisphere beeches, genus Fagus, remains obscure. As a possible “missing link” may be mentioned the much discussed leaf fossils known as Artocarpidium arberi Laurent of Upper Cretaceous age from Pakawau. Oliver, in an unpublished manuscript, points out the resemblance of the venation to that of Fagus sylvatica and proposes a new genus for them, Protofagus. Oliver also suggests an affinity of the New Zealand leaf fossil Nothofagus ulmifolia Ett. (Cretaceous) with the South American beeches, in particular N. procera. Most of the fossil southern beeches had larger leaves than the living New Zealand species. The leaf fossil Nothofagus ninnisiana Unger from the Upper Cretaceous (Shag Point) and Lower Tertiary (Waikato and Ohai) is a broad-leaf type and fossil wood, believed to be that of large-leaved beeches, was described by Evans in the articles mentioned above. In the fossil record, as compared with the four or five species now living, 23 species have been named from macrofossils and 12 or 13 from microfossils, indicating the variety and importance of the southern beeches in the former vegetation of New Zealand and the closeness of present-day New Zealand to the centre of evolution and dispersal within this group.

Fruits and Seeds

Fossil fruits and seeds as yet yield a meagre record. At Coopers Beach, Mangonui, and at one or two other localities along the east coast, fossil coconuts of probable Miocene age have been found. These were named Cocos zealandica by Berry. The coconut fruits may have been brought by oceanic drift, but in favour of a more local origin are the facts that New Zealand may have consisted at the time of an archipelago of small islands, and that large palm fronds have been found at the same and other localities. Berry also referred to another fruit resembling that of a species of the Australian Hakea. Hakea-like pollen is known from the Eocene of New Zealand. Seeds are more commonly preserved in Quaternary sediments and may make a valuable contribution to our knowledge of the Quaternary history of the flora. In 1953 D. R. McQueen described an assemblage of fossil seeds from the Rangitikei Valley (Quaternary), of which 24 belonged to living species. A concise summary of the history of the flora of New Zealand was published by W. R. B. Oliver in a Swedish journal (Svensk Botanisk Tidskrift, 1955), and Oliver also contributed a similar article to Tuatara (1950). A useful work on the conditions under which the New Zealand flora evolved is New Zealand Biogeography, by C. A. Fleming, in Tuatara (1962). In the Transactions of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Vol. 83, there are papers by Shona Bell, H. J. Harrington and I. C. McKellar, and D. R. McQueen, and these give further useful references to the literature on New Zealand plant fossils. For plant micro-fossils the reader is referred to N.Z. Geological Survey Paleontological Bulletin 32 (1960), by R. A. Couper.

by William Francis Harris, D.SC., New Zealand Geological Survey, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Lower Hutt.

Rivers and ocean waves constantly erode the land, and carry large quantities of sand and mud far out to sea to be deposited on the bottom in layers. Myriads of minute organisms, some living a benthic existence on the sea bottom, others floating in the upper layers of the sea as plankton, leave behind hard skeletons and shells which accumulate on the sea bed and become entombed in the sediment along with minute skeletal parts of larger organisms. Over a long period of time the layers of sediment become compacted and hardened to form rock strata, and may be exposed as dry land in a later geological period by withdrawal of the sea or uplift.

Rock strata, like the leaves of a book, are the pages of geological history which can be read by the micropaleontologist who studies assemblages of microfossils preserved in successive beds. As an archaeologist can assign artefacts to certain periods of human culture or a historian identify the characteristics of a period of history, so can a micropaleontologist tell in which geological age an assemblage of microfossils from a particular stratum was buried in the sea bed. Microfossils therefore help the field geologist to work out correctly the sequence of rocks and their geological structure in areas where the earth's crust is strongly contorted and dislocated or obscured by vegetation or young deposits.

New Zealand sedimentary rocks of upper Cretaceous and Tertiary age are rich in microfossils and there are numerous publications dealing with them.

Planktonic microfossils (freely floating in life) are widely distributed throughout the oceans by currents and similar assemblages of species are found in rocks of the same age in different parts of the world. Planktonic forms are therefore particularly useful for correlating rocks of the same age throughout the world and they help geologists to piece together more accurately the story of geological events in the earth's history.

Microfossils are used by oil exploration geologists in their surveys of possible oil fields. Their abundance and small size makes them especially easy to collect and store. A pea-sized piece of soft limestone or limey mudstone may contain many thousands of microfossils. Most soft limestones, mudstones or sandstones in New Zealand will yield Foraminifera, Ostracoda or Bryozoa if they are first well soaked and then washed over a fine sieve with holes of a millimetre or less in diameter.

by Norcott de Bisson Hornibrook, M.SC., F.R.S.N.Z., Senior Principal Scientific Officer, New Zealand Geological Survey, Lower Hutt.

• The Tertiary Cheilostomatous Polyzoa of New Zealand, Brown, D. A. (1952)
• New Zealand Geological Survey Paleontological Bulletin 18, Tertiary and Recent Marine Ostracoda of New Zealand, Hornibrook, N. de B. (1952)
• New Zealand Geological Survey Paleontological Bulletin 34, Tertiary Foraminifera from Oamaru District (N.Z.), Hornibrook, N. de B. (1961)
• Introduction to Microfossils, Jones Daniel, J. (1956).

The study of plant and animal fossils has thrown light on the overseas relationships of the past life of New Zealand and has also given some idea of past climates. Cambrian and Ordovician faunas are virtually cosmopolitan in their affinities, but those of the Cambrian are close to those of Queensland, Manchuria, and the Baltic, and those of the Ordovician, to Victoria. Close relationship to Eastern Australia is also shown by the Devonian faunas, but again with cosmopolitan (Europe, North America) elements. Two definite faunas characterise the Permian – a Lower Permian fauna of brachiopods, pelecypods, and solitary corals, closely related to South-East Australia and, to a lesser extent, South Africa, South America, and India; and an Upper Permian warm-water fauna of fusulinid Foraminifera and reef corals with Indo-Pacific affinities. In the Triassic and Lower Jurassic, many brachiopods and pelecypods are confined to New Zealand or occur elsewhere only in New Caledonia; at this time the two countries were evidently isolated from the remainder of the Indo-Pacific. On the other hand, during the same time the ammonites, which probably lived in the surface waters, and pterioid pelecypods, such as Daonella, Halobia, Monotis and Rhaetavicula, which probably had pelagic larvae, were able to migrate freely, and cosmopolitan forms in these groups are found in New Zealand. The Middle Jurassic is characterised by the arrival of another pterioid pelecypod (Meleagrinella) and other pelecypods and gastropods from Indo-Pacific countries. Indo-Pacific affinities also persist into the Upper Jurassic. Climatically, in the Triassic and Jurassic New Zealand probably lay in the warm temperate zone. The Lower Cretaceous is represented by ammonites and some pelecypods of European affinities, other pelecypods of Southern Hemisphere affinities, and belemnites of Australasian affinities. The Upper Cretaceous faunas, in contrast, show strong southern (for example, South American) affinities. Cretaceous climate was probably temperate or warm temperate. Distinct South American affinities are continued into the lowermost Tertiary molluscan faunas, but accompanied by Indo-Pacific, Australasian, and endemic elements. These latter three elements are also found in the faunas of the remainder of the Tertiary and in the Quaternary. Throughout the Tertiary, temperatures in the New Zealand region were temperate or marginal tropical at best (Lower Miocene of Northland). The Pleistocene history of New Zealand is dominated by successive periods of cooling, which caused the extinction of warm-water forms and allowed the incoming of southern cool-water forms, although Indo-Pacific and Australian elements have continued to colonise.

by Graeme Roy Stevens, M.SC.(N.Z.), PH.D.(CANTAB.), Paleontologist, New Zealand Geological Survey, Lower Hutt.

Marine fossils are known in New Zealand from 13 of the 15 major divisions of geologic time. Fossils belonging to the Silurian and Carboniferous periods have not been definitely recognised in the New Zealand succession.

The New Zealand fossil record is predominantly marine and most phyla of marine animals are represented; the record of terrestrial or freshwater life is extremely poor. As Phyla vary widely in their structure for preservation as fossils (hard-shelled creatures are more likely to be preserved than those with soft bodies), the fossil record at best only provides glimpses of the history of life in the past.

Of the marine Protozoa, Foraminifera are particularly well represented in the Upper Cretaceous and Tertiary of New Zealand, but older records are rare, owing to the hardness of the enclosing rocks. Scattered Lower Cretaceous faunas are known, and rare Jurassic and Permian faunas. The study of fossil Coccolithophorida and Radiolaria from New Zealand is yet in its infancy, but Coccoliths occur in the Upper Cretaceous and Tertiary, and Radiolaria in the Tertiary and Triassic (radiolarian cherts). Sponge remains (Porifera), mainly isolated spicules, are preserved in the Cambrian, Ordovician, Upper Cretaceous, Lower Tertiary, and Pleistocene, but they have been little studied. Receptaculites, a spongelike fossil, but of uncertain systematic position, is recorded from the Devonian of New Zealand. The fossil record of the Coelenterata in New Zealand starts in the Devonian, when Rugose and Tabulate corals flourished. Two types of coral assemblage characterise the New Zealand Permian: solitary, cool-water types in the Lower Permian, and reef-building, warm-water types in the Upper Permian. Apart from a conularid found in the Upper Triassic, the post-Permian records of coelenterates are from the Cretaceous and Tertiary rocks – a few Hydrozoa and Anthozoa and abundant Zoantharia (Scleractinia). Marine tube-forming Annelida are represented by tubes and shells. Not much work has been done on New Zealand fossil annelids, but two species have been described from the undifferentiated Triassic-Jurassic rocks of the main ranges of the North and South Island, and these may be of Triassic age. Other worm tubes are known from the Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Tertiary. Marine Arthropoda are well represented in New Zealand by Ostracoda and Cirripedia and by rarer Decapoda and Trilobita, but other Arthropoda have extremely poor fossil records and terrestrial groups are hardly represented at all apart from insects in late Quaternary deposits. The oldest New Zealand Ostracods are from the Cretaceous, and the group ranges throughout the Tertiary. Fossil Cirripedes occur in the Tertiary, and fossil Decapoda in the Lower and Upper Jurassic, Upper Cretaceous, and Tertiary. Phyllocarids (Leptostraca) are preserved in the Ordovician, and Trilobites in the Cambrian, Ordovician, and Devonian. Shelled Mollusca have the most complete record of all larger invertebrates, but land shells are not recorded as fossils in New Zealand before the Pleistocene, and freshwater groups are little known. Gastropoda range back to the Cambrian, but it is not until the Devonian that the first Pelecypoda appear.

From the Permian to the present day, each of the geologic periods in New Zealand is characterised by important pelecypod and gastropod faunas. About 240 genera of pelecypods and 570 gastropod genera have been described from the New Zealand Tertiary and Quaternary. The Scaphopoda, appearing first in the Triassic of New Zealand, are a minor element in the fossil invertebrate fauna, but become locally abundant in the Middle Tertiary. Because of their usefulness for dating and correlation, Cephalopoda are important Mesozoic fossils, but they are, on the whole, sparsely distributed in New Zealand. Rare Dibranchiata are known from the Upper Triassic, but none from the Lower Jurassic. The record improves in the Middle and Upper Jurassic, when belemnites are abundant and useful fossils. The Lower Cretaceous lacks belemnites, but distinctive belemnites characterise the Upper Cretaceous. Ammonoids occur in the Triassic and ammonites in most of the Jurassic stages and from some of those of the Cretaceous. Nautiloids are a minor element in the New Zealand fossil fauna and occur in the Mesozoic and Tertiary. Polyzoa are known from Devonian, Triassic, and Tertiary rocks. Brachiopoda are found in all of the geologic periods present in New Zealand. Primitive types (Atremata) are recorded from the Cambrian and Ordovician and more advanced forms from the Devonian. The Middle and Upper Jurassic and Cretaceous brachiopods are little known. Tertiary brachiopod faunas are of importance and rich faunas characterise the Oligocene. Echinodermata are rare in the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic of New Zealand. A carpoid is known from the Devonian, a cidarid (Echinoidea) from the Upper Triassic, an ophiuroid from the Upper Cretaceous, and asteroids from the Upper Jurassic and Upper Cretaceous. Good echinoid faunas are known from the Tertiary. New Zealand crinoids are not well known, but fragments occur in the Permian, Triassic, Upper Jurassic, and Tertiary. Primitive Chordata are represented in New Zealand by the graptolites (Stomochorda), found in the Ordovician.

Vertebrata have a sparse record in New Zealand and those that are preserved are mainly marine forms. Sharks and saw-sharks are represented by teeth, found in the Upper Cretaceous and Tertiary. Elephant Fish and Chimaerids have left some bone fragments in an Upper Cretaceous deposit. Rays have left rare grinding teeth and spines. Bones and scales of Teleost fish are occasionally preserved, but their commonest remains are otoliths. There is a single Pliocene record of a freshwater fish (Galaxias). Reptilia are known from Middle Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous. In the late Cretaceous, large marine Mosasaurs and Elasmosaurs were not uncommon. No terrestrial dinosaurs (known in Australia and Patagonia) have been reported from New Zealand and the Tuatara (Sphenodon) of the present day has no fossil record before the Holocene. Birds have a poor fossil record, except for the penguins. The oldest moa bones (Dinornithi-formes) are Upper Miocene, and footprints, perhaps Apteryx, are about the same age. Extinct subfamilies of penguins (Sphenisciformes) are well represented from Lower Eocene to Oligocene, and there is a single Pliocene skeleton, but the living Spheniscinae are unknown before the late Pleistocene. A possible albatross bone is known from the Oligocene, but other flying birds have no record in New Zealand before the Pleistocene. Two groups of marine mammals are represented by scanty fossils: Cretacea in the Oligocene, Pliocene, and Pleistocene; Pinnipedia by a few bones from the Pliocene and Pleistocene.

Abundant coals, lignites, and peats, ranging in age from Jurassic to Recent, yield pollen grains and spores of land plants and provide a good basis for study of past plant life. Leaf, seed, and wood fossils, still not adequately studied, are a valuable supplement to the pollen record. The oldest recognisable plants in the New Zealand succession are fernlike fossils from the Permian of Southland. Middle Jurassic vegetation is represented by the well-known Curio Bay fossil forest of Waikawa, Southland; and Upper Jurassic vegetation by the Port Waikato plant fossils. Angiosperms arose and spread throughout the world at the end of the Lower Cretaceous, and angiosperm pollen grains of this age are known in New Zealand. Many good Tertiary floras are known, and in the Miocene they include fossil coconuts in Northland. Late Pliocene and Pleistocene floras reflect the gradual world-wide cooling in the Late Pliocene, followed by the oscillating climate of the Pleistocene. Marine and freshwater Algae have left no record, except for some marine calcareous forms and marine and freshwater diatoms.

(1814–98).

Trader, politician, Congregationalist pastor.

T. S. Forsaith was born in 1814 in London of strict Primitive Congregationalist parents; his father was Samuel Forsaith, a linen draper and haberdasher, and his mother, Elizabeth née Emberson. At an early age Forsaith was apprenticed to a Croydon silk merchant but, disliking this occupation, he determined to go to sea. He engaged secretly as cabin boy on a Tyne-bound collier, but his intention was discovered and his parents, hoping to disgust him with the rigours of a seaman's life, allowed him to make one voyage. After this he joined Charles Horsfall and Co., the shipping firm, and as a cadet officer made three voyages to the East in the Huddersfield. In 1834 he sailed as fourth officer in the Hoogley which was under charter by the Government to transport convicts to Botany Bay. In July 1836, in the Lord Goderich, he again visited Australia and on the return voyage called at Hokianga to collect a cargo of kauri spars.

On 17 May 1838, at the Congregational Church in Old Broad Street, London, Forsaith married Elizabeth Mary, daughter of Robert Clements, of Hoxton – their wedding being one of the first legally celebrated in a dissenting place of worship. Later in the same year he chartered the Coromandel, loaded it with trade goods and lumbermaking machinery, and emigrated to New Zealand. In 1839 he purchased two blocks of land in the Kaipara district and established a trading station on the northern Wairoa River. He also erected a mill to cut kauri spars (then selling at £17 each) for the British Government, and imported cattle and farm implements to break in his land. By May 1841 he had cleared and fenced 12 acres, of which 10 acres were sown in wheat. In February 1842, while Forsaith and his wife were visiting Sydney, a Maori skull was discovered on his property. Local chiefs claimed that a tapu had been broken and exacted utu, or payment, by plundering the station. Forsaith petitioned Governor Hobson for compensation. The claim was investigated by George Clarke the Protector of Aborigines. His report cleared Forsaith of complicity, and the chiefs responsible agreed to cede him a small block of land (10 square miles) by way of settlement. This was the first occasion on which Government Officers had visited the district and Clarke made valuable recommendations concerning the establishment of a magistracy there.

This incident so upset Forsaith that, shortly afterwards, he exchanged his holdings for an equivalent tract nearer to Auckland. In March 1842, because of his wide experience among the Maoris and his command of their language, he was appointed by Hobson Sub-protector of Aborigines. In 1843 he was promoted Protector in succession to Clarke. In this capacity he worked closely with Governor FitzRoy whom he accompanied to the Cook Strait area in 1844, and to the great Maori meeting at Waikanae after the Wairau affray. Forsaith was stationed in Wellington and in February 1844 was present at the signing of the Te Aro land purchase. In April 1845 he negotiated with Rangihaeata to secure Maori evacuation of the Hutt lands, and proposed that a system of trade tokens be instituted to prevent the barter trading between Maoris and Europeans which, as he saw it, was the cause of their reluctance to leave the district. Later in the year he acted as interpreter for Major M. Richmond, the Government Superintendent for the Southern District, and Bishop Selwyn in their successful endeavour to bring peace to the warring Wanganui tribes. When, in 1845, Te Rauparaha paid a ceremonial visit to Wellington, Forsaith met and escorted him through the town.

In 1847 he left the Government's employ and opened a drapery store in Auckland where his neat red-brick premises became one of that city's show-places. For a short time he edited the Southern Cross newspaper and in August 1852 was elected to represent the Northern Division in the New Ulster Legislative Council; in August 1853 this district returned him to the first General Assembly. During the controversial debates on responsible government, Forsaith was the only member to oppose E. G. Wakefield's motion. He admitted that responsible government was desirable but argued that, under existing circumstances, it was improper for Parliament to expect the Administrator (Wynyard) to introduce a constitutional change which was clearly beyond his legal authority. On the division following FitzGerald's resignation, Forsaith was among the 10 members who refused to force the issue. Because his consistent championing of the Administrator's position lent credence to the belief that Forsaith led an “opposition” group whose views were more in accord with Wynyard's, he was called upon to select three colleagues to join the Executive Council. On 31 August 1854 Forsaith, and E. J. Wakefield, W. T. L. Travers, and James Macandrew, took their seats in the Executive Council, but without portfolio. The “Ministry's” views were set forth in the Governor's Address to the second session of Parliament, and included such items as an elective Legislative Council, revision of electoral districts, and clarification of the relative spheres of the General and Provincial Governments. The drafting of this speech was the “Ministry's” sole official act and, when their prepared Address in Reply was rejected by the House on 3 September 1854, Forsaith and his colleagues resigned. Constitutionally, Forsaith, like his predecessor FitzGerald, has no claim to be regarded as a Premier of New Zealand.

Shortly before his elevation to office, Forsaith had tabled a motion to secure religious toleration and, on 28 August 1855, he defeated Carlton's attempt to have Bishop Selwyn's salary made a charge on the Colonial Government. This had the effect of disestablishing the Anglican Church in New Zealand. Defeated at the polls in 1855, Forsaith returned to business, becoming a Justice of the Peace in 1857. He was re-elected to Parliament in April 1858, but his sincere, if ill-timed defence of Wiremu Kingi after the Waitara affair, effectively terminated his political career, and he retired in 1860.

In 1862 Forsaith gave up his business to enter the church. The Presbyterian authorities (he had joined that church in 1850) offered him a post as missioner at Tuapeka goldfields but he declined this, preferring to continue theological studies preparatory to ordination as a minister. In July 1865, however, he was ordained to the new Congregational pastorate at Port Chalmers. In 1867 he accepted a call to a similar pastorate at Woollahra, New South Wales. From there he removed (1868) to Parramatta and, in 1872, became chairman of the Congregational Union of New South Wales. In 1878 he was appointed resident chaplain at Camden Theological College, and, while there, founded a branch mission at Haslam's Creek (now Hampden), New South Wales. He returned to Parramatta in 1882, and later toured Canada, America, and Europe. In Britain he gave a series of public lectures which attracted many new immigrants to New Zealand, and for a short time he officiated at the Presbyterian Church in Venice. In 1884 he left Europe and for some years relieved at churches in Australia and New Zealand (notably in Dunedin and Invercargill). Early in 1898 Forsaith began his memoirs but had not proceeded far when he died, at Parramatta, on 29 November 1898.

As one of the earliest settlers in the Kaipara district, Forsaith acquired the unique reputation of dealing fairly with the Maoris in land transactions. His understanding of Maori language and customs and his tactfulness in dealing with their problems made his services invaluable to New Zealand's first three Governors. As a parliamentarian, he impressed his contemporaries as a serious thinker and an able debater, and it was unfortunate that his political career ended at such an early stage. Forsaith was a deeply religious man. Although he was a Presbyterian for many years, his best services were given to the sect of his youth, the Congregationalists. He entered their ministry relatively late in life but proved, in a quiet unassuming way, both in Australia and in New Zealand, that he was a truly great pioneer of the church.

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

• I.A. 1/80 (MSS), National Archives
• O.L.C. 626, 628 (MSS), National Archives
• N.Z.P.D. 1854–55, 1855–60
• New Zealand Spectator, 10 May 1845.

(Myosotis).

In this well-known garden genus, there are more than 50 species, over 30 of them occurring in New Zealand. All of these are endemic with the possible exception of some forms of one species which occur in Australia. Several introduced species are naturalised and of widespread occurrence, particularly M. palustris which is the common European forget-me-not. The New Zealand species do not, in general, possess the deep-blue flowers of this plant. Here the genus is noteworthy for the manner in which it has evolved in contrast to developments elsewhere. The only native species with deep-blue flowers are M. capitata from the islands to the south, and M. antarctica from Campbell Island. Some species have yellow flowers, M. macrantha has bronze flowers, while those of the remaining species are inconspicuous in colour. Many of the species are difficult to identify and several greatly resemble one another in habit and foliage although the flowers differ widely.

M. australis is one of the yellow-flowered species found in the Kaweka Mountains and throughout the South Island. The plant is about a foot high, densely hairy, with spatulate leaves up to 2 in. long. Forms of this species occur in Australia and Tasmania. M. goyenii, also a yellow-flowered plant, is found on dry rocky slopes. M. pulvinaris is a rounded cushion plant in the mountains of Central Otago.

Closely related to the true forget-me-nots is Myosotidium hortensia, the Chatham Island forget-me-not, found naturally only on that island but sometimes cultivated. It is a remarkably handsome perennial plant with rounded, shining, bright-green leaves, 12 in. long. The beautiful dark- and light-blue flowers are half an inch across.

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

Where two or more types of forest meet, transition types occur, sometimes on an extensive scale. Podocarps in particular are frequent in certain localities as emergents in beech forest.

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

• Monograph on the New Zealand Beech Forests, Cockayne, L. (1926)
• Vegetation of New Zealand, Cockayne, L. (1926)
• Forests and Climate in the South Island of New Zealand, Holloway, J. T. (1954).

This was the most plentiful forest of the lowland and montane areas of New Zealand. It varied much in composition, according to latitude, altitude, slope, and aspect. It has provided, and continues to provide, a very large part of the milling timber cut in this country. The forest has been cleared from most of the more accessible areas as settlement progressed. The only substantial areas of it that remain are on the West Coast, where the soils are not suitable for agriculture, and on the central North Island, where agriculture, because of soil deficiencies, has only lately been developed. Pockets still exist in the valleys along all the mountain chains, and logged kauri forest containing kauri regeneration is present in small and large areas throughout the former extent of the kauri forest.

The forest in the north, particularly north of Auckland, and on the Coromandel Peninsula, frequently contains kauri as the dominant emergent tree. Trees sometimes reach very large dimensions and, with cylindrical boles and large spreading crowns, are a distinctive feature. Other conifers frequent in the same forest are rimu, tanekaha (Phyllocladus trichomanoides), and, in places, toatoa (P. glaucus). The lower tiers of broadleaf trees are various combinations of towai (Weinmannia sylvicola), kamahi, Hall's totara, taraire (Beilschmiedia taraire), and northern rata.

South of the kauri group of types, rimu becomes the dominant podocarp, but in the centre of the North Island on the pumice soils there is a mixture of podocarps, depending upon the age and the history of the forest that has arisen since the pumice showers. Matai (Podocarpus spicatus) and totara (P. totara) sometimes dominate, or matai, totara, rimu (Dacrydium cupressinum) and miro (P. ferrugineus) are all present. In parts of this area the two totaras, P. totara and P. hallii, meet and hybridise. In a few places only, the tree species of Phyllocladus also meet and hybridise. The most abundant hardwood in these types is kamahi, and tawa is frequent. In the centre of the North Island rewarewa (Knightia excelsa) and hinau are also plentiful. Throughout the remainder of the North Island rimu is the main podocarp tree up to about 2,000 ft elevation. Matai is present on the best soils and kahikatea on the swampy river silts. Totara is common on river soils, particularly shingly ones. Nearly all the matai, kahikatea, and totara forest has, however, been cleared. The hardwoods accompanying these podocarps are kamahi, Olea species, and the northern rata, which starts its life in the crowns of tall podocarps and gradually replaces its host.

The West Coast terraces are the home of rimu forest. In these, rimu grows frequently in groups with the crowns almost touching. A feature of this forest also is that rimus of all ages are found, ranging from seedlings to overmature trees. The hardwoods found in this forest are southern rata, Quintinia and kamahi. Off the terraces rimu is still plentiful, but it is usually a larger tree and there is an absence of juvenile forms. The hardwoods form a larger part of the forest.

At higher elevations in both islands the mountain toatoa (Phyllocladus alpinus) and kaikawaka (Libocedrus bidwillii) both form forests or belts of forest, sometimes of considerable extent.

Southern Beech Forest

In this forest four beech species occur, one with two major varieties. Whether they are found singly or in mixtures the forest itself contains mainly, if not entirely, beech as the dominant forest trees and the canopy is even compared with that of the mixed broadleaf coniferous forest. Such complete dominance of beech is made possible by the periodic occurrence of years of heavy flowering and seeding, normally followed by dense regeneration.

The brief account which follows of the habitat requirements of the individual species will help towards an understanding of the distribution of the species and forest throughout New Zealand. Black (Nothofagus solandri var. solandri) and hard (N. truncata) beeches are both species of a warm temperate climate, which in New Zealand seldom extends above 1,500 ft altitude. Hard beech withstands warmer conditions than do any of the other species, as indicated by its presence in the far north, while black beech is the most drought-resistant species. Although pure forests of both are to be found, these are of limited extent; they usually occur intimately associated in the same forest. Red beech (N. fusca) prefers somewhat cooler conditions and likes moist situations. Where it and hard beech occur together it takes the damper, more fertile sites, while hard beech is found on the drier sites and ridges. Mountain (N. solandri var. cliffortioides) and silver (N. menziesii) beeches are both species of a cold temperate climate and frequently form the timber line. They do descend to low altitudes in warmer climates, silver beech in quite extensive areas, often as a riparian tree, and mountain beech occupying very poor soils. At higher altitudes silver beech is present under moister conditions than is the case with mountain beech.

Hard beech is found in a few localities as far north as Kaitaia and around the Auckland district it becomes common. From the East Cape to the northern part of the South Island it is an important forest tree. Silver beech and red beech first occur on Mount Te Aroha and again on the Mamaku Plateau. From there southwards they become important. Black beech occurs from the Egmont-Wanganui district to about the centre of the South Island, and mountain beech from the mountains of the East Cape to the bottom of the South Island.

Beech forms the main forest all along the chain of mountains from the East Cape to Cape Palliser, with silver and mountain beeches at the higher altitudes depending upon site. Red beech occurs mainly at intermediate elevations, with hard and black beeches lower down the mountains and in the lowlands. In the north-west part of the South Island all species intermingle closely and form by far the greater part of the extensive forest cover. Mountain beech forms the forest at timber line all through the east of this region, and silver beech, together with mountain beech, throughout the west. West of the main divide beech forest virtually ceases at the Taramakau River and does not reappear for 100 miles further south at the Mahitahi River. By that time it is principally silver beech, and this tree dominates the greater part of the extensive forests throughout the south-western part of the South Island.

Hybridisation occurs between species of beech except silver beech. Between black and mountain beeches there are many transitional forms. Where the two appear on the same mountain range it is possible for mountain beech to occur at the timber line and black beech in the foothills, with a complete range of intermediates between the two. Mountain and red beeches do not associate frequently, but when they do they hybridise freely and adult hybrid trees are plentiful. Black and hard beeches, the species usually present in the same forest in intimate mixture, hybridise much less frequently and adult hybrid trees are not common.

The New Zealand southern beeches have interesting affinities with beeches occurring in other parts of the Southern Hemisphere. A great deal of knowledge has accumulated in recent years on this, much of it coming from studies of pollens. The New Zealand species have close affinities with those found in Australia and South America, and there is a peculiar association with a fungus, Cyttaria, occurring on silver beech and also on a similar species in South America, but on no other species. In the mountains of New Guinea and New Caledonia are a number of species of beech belonging to a section not now represented in New Zealand. Fossil pollens show, however, that it was present in past ages when conditions were warmer.

By and large, the coastal forests consisted of mixed broadleaf types, though in many places they contained some podocarps, or, in the north, kauri. Most of this forest has disappeared and the lower remnants are usually eaten out by stock; intact samples are rare. The coastal forest from the North Cape to the East Cape and Taranaki was dominated by karaka (Corynocarpus laevigatus), kohekohe (Dysoxylum spectabile), pohutukawa (Metrosideros excelsa), and puriri (Vitex lucens). In many places the nikau palm (Rhopalostylos sapida) occurred in large numbers. The coast to the south of this had forest containing much karaka, kohekohe, ngaio (Myoporum laetum), and nikau palm, extending as far as the tip of the South Island, and along the West Coast of the South Island as far as Westport. The coast of the Sounds-Nelson area, however, was principally covered by beech forest. On the West Coast the broadleaf forest contained a high proportion of podocarps, mainly rimu, growing right to the cliff edges. Much of this still remains as does southern rata (Metrosideros umbellata) forest on the rugged Fiordland coast. Although not strictly forming a forest in New Zealand, the mangroves (Avicennia resinifera) must be mentioned. They occupied – and still occupy – tidal mudflats from the north to about latitude 38°S.

The lowland and montane forests away from the coast, although they consisted mainly of broadleaf trees, contained a varying proportion of coniferous trees, usually podocarps. In some places there were broadleaf forests without the coniferous component, but these were limited in area. This, however, is the type of forest that remains now, because podocarps and kauri have been logged out leaving behind broadleaf trees only. There are a number of distinct types. One that is common on the Mamaku plateau and West Taupo region is dominated by hinau, Eleocarpus dentatus, with its olive-like fruit, and kamahi (Weinmannia racemosa). In other parts of the same area, and extending into the Urewera, are forests containing hinau, kamahi, much kohekohe, and some northern rata (Metrosideros robusta). Throughout most of these broadleaf types there is a content of kamahi. In the South Island southern rata becomes a dominant tree in many places, but kamahi remains very common.

High-altitude forests, if not of beech, are nearly all of mixed broadleaf types. Throughout the North Island kamahi is a very common tree at the upper limits of forests. Similarly, on the West Coast there are both kamahi and southern rata. Forests composed mainly of these two trees clothe the western flanks along the central part of the Southern Alps. These forests can be severely damaged by a combination of deer and opossums. In the Fiordland area much of high-altitude forest consists of southern rata, and in the Catlins area, on the south-east coast of the South Island, kamahi is again the principal tree. Upper timber-line belts are largely composed of broadleaf shrubs made up frequently of species of the two genera of tree daisies, Olearia and Senecio.

The extent of forest before human settlement commenced is now impossible to determine, but it is thought that at about the time white settlement began, at least two-thirds of the country was forest clad. Both Maori occupation and other influences brought about constant changes in the forests. These will be described briefly. European settlement has, of course, brought about major changes, which will be described as the forest types are dealt with. Lastly, the introduction of mammals, of which the country was completely free, except for two bats, has everywhere changed the virgin condition of the forests. No forest is now free of their influence. Readily detectable effects are brought about by the ground-browsing animals, deer, goats, and escaped domestic animals, and the canopy browser, the opossum. These effects vary from complete destruction of certain types of forest by a combination of animals to slight effects on bird life and thus on the regeneration of the forest.

Before any human settlement took place, forests – as well as other vegetation – were undergoing slow but constant changes associated mainly with climatic changes. Beech forest invaded broadleaf, and vice versa. Botanists over the past decade have shown that changes of this nature now taking place indicate the development of a colder and wetter climate. These changes are occurring within the life spans of some of our major forest trees, rimu, totara, kauri, etc., which can be as much as several hundred or even a thousand or more years old.

The great central North Island volcanic eruptions of the past few millennia brought about cataclysmic changes in the vegetation throughout certain districts of the North Island. There is ample evidence, in the form of charred remains, of the widespread destruction of forest by fire and by burial under pumice. It seems that the first vegetation to cover raw pumice consisted mainly of grasses and some low pioneering shrubs. Because the region is, by and large, a forest one, forest vegetation gradually spread through the lower growing forms of vegetation from pockets of forest that escaped destruction and from the undestroyed forest around the edges of the showers. The result was a peculiar pattern of forest, related in part to nucleus forest areas and in part to the nature of the spread of the forest – the quick spread of podocarp-broadleaf forest, and the slow spread of beech.