About the year 1870 Sir George Grey imported some wallabies from Australia and set them free on Kawau Island. About the same time Mr. John Reed, of Auckland, also imported some, which he liberated on Motutapu Island, whence they have spread to Rangitoto. Those on Kawau increased to such an extent as nearly to eat out the vegetation, and when the property was sold the new owners allowed the wallabies to be killed out wholesale. They have by now been mostly all destroyed. Even in Sir George Grey’s time us many as two hundred would be killed in a single battue. Some got across to the mainland--a swim of three miles--but they cannot be very numerous. They belong to the same species as those so common at Waimate.
COMMON OPOSSUM (_Trichosurus vulpecula_), AND SOOTY OPOSSUM (_Trichosurus fuliginosa_).
People who live in or near the bush in many parts of New Zealand know that among the trees are to be found numerous furry animals about the size of a big terrier dog, which are popularly known as opossums. The name is a misnomer, like so many popular names. The true opossums are found only in America; they belong to a different family of marsupials, and are carnivorous. Our animals are herbivorous, and ought to be called phalangers; but the other name will always stick to them now.
These animals are not usually seen during the daytime, but they come out at night, and, when other kinds of food are short, may make an attack on the orchards and eat the apples and pears as they are becoming ripe. But because they are chiefly nocturnal in their habits young people seldom see them, and unobservant people may live in a district containing thousands of opossums and never know that they occur in the neighbourhood. These animals are not natives of New Zealand. They were first brought to this country from Australia about sixty years ago, and were liberated near Riverton. Later importations have frequently been made, both private individuals and acclimatization societies introducing them. Thus the Auckland Society and Sir George Grey brought a considerable number from Australia between 1869 and 1876, and Kawau at one time was overrun with them. The Wellington Society liberated nineteen Tasmanian black opossums in the ranges behind Paraparaumu in 1892; and the Otago Society got twelve silver-grey opossums from Gippsland in 1895, and liberated them in the Catlin’s district. They have increased greatly in most wooded parts of the Dominion.