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In the 1860s local acclimatisation societies encouraged the import of European birds. Farmers were keen to control insect pests, and would buy birds considered suitable for the task. Sometimes the birds, which needed to first survive a 100-day voyage to New Zealand, would be sold by auction. This advertisement appeared in the Auckland paper Daily Southern Cross in 1868.
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
National Library of New Zealand, Papers Past
Reference: Daily Southern Cross, 4 April 1868, p. 2
Permission of the National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.