Tutira
The Story of a New Zealand Sheep Station

This pioneering 1921 book focuses on the environmental impact of introduced species on New Zealand's native flora and fauna.

H. Guthrie-Smith (Author)

9781108040013, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 24 November 2011

502 pages, 152 b/w illus. 18 maps
24.4 x 17 x 2.6 cm, 0.79 kg

In 1880, William Herbert Guthrie-Smith (1862–1940) emigrated from Scotland to New Zealand, where he learned the basics of sheep farming and acquired Tutira, a disused sheep station of 20,000 acres in the Hawke's Bay region of the North Island. Tutira, published in 1921, describes every aspect of Guthrie-Smith's enterprise, including the redevelopment of the land and comprehensive advice on sheep farming. The book also covers the history of the local Maori and of European settlement, and provides an extensive account of the farm's natural history including its geological configuration, meteorological patterns, the formation of lakes and waterways, and the native plant and bird species Guthrie-Smith discovered on his land. It also draws attention to the impact of introduced, 'alien' plants and animals. Tutira is one of the great classics of New World environmental consciousness; it was reprinted in 1926, and a posthumous revised edition appeared in 1953.

Preface
1. Tutira, its prominent physical features
2. Rock constituents of the run
3. The lakes
4. The soils of Tutira, past and present
5. Subcutaneous erosion
6. Surface slips
7. The forest of the past
8. Two periods of Maori life
9. Trails from the coast to Tutira
10. Trails round Tutira Lake
11. The trail to the ranges
12. Vegetation of the station prior to settlement
13. The ferns of Tutira
14. The avifauna of the station prior to settlement
15. In the beginning
16. The lure of improvements
17. Hard times
18. The rise and fall of H. G.-S. and A. M. C.
19. Fern-crushing
20. The cartographers of the station
21. Stocking and scour
22. Future of native avifauna
23. The partnership of H. G.-S. and J. T. S.
24. The naturalised alien flora of Tutira
25. Stowaways
26. Garden escapes
27. Children of the Church
28. Burdens of sin
29. Fire and flood weeds
30. Pedestrians
31. The stocking of Tutira by alien animals
32. Other aliens on Tutira prior to 1882
33. Acclimatisation centres and migration routes
34. The invasion from the south
35. The invasion from the north
36. Domestic animals 'wild'
37. Reconsiderations
38. Vicissitudes.

Subject Areas: Environmental science, engineering & technology [TQ]