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Its Introduction.
The next question is to find out how this frog came to New Zealand.
I thought that at first it might be an indigenous frog, but there seems to be no evidence whatever to support this theory. There is no record of it in the early days of settlement, and at all the places where it has been found its origin can be traced directly or indirectly to Greymouth.
As the frog was so common on the east coast of Australia I thought that probably it came over among the ballast of some ship trading between that continent and Greymouth, but this theory was upset on making further inquiries in Westland.
Several of my correspondents say that these brown frogs, Hyla ewingii, were brought from Tasmania by a Mr. W. Perkins in 1875, and through the kindness of Mr. T. Eldon Coates, of Greymouth, I received the report which is generally accepted in that town. He states that a Mr. W. Perkins, who was a barrister in Greymouth for some time, brought some of these frogs from Tasmania in a glass bottle in 1875. They were liberated in a drain in Alexandra Street, Greymouth, whence they have spread to the surrounding country. They have remained in
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great numbers in and about the spot where they were originally liberated. The main facts of this account I have also received from several other Greymouth correspondents.
These frogs cannot, as some have thought, be the ones liberated by the Agricultural Department in 1898, because they were never liberated on the west coast of the South Island at all; besides, the two could never have been confused, owing to the difference in size, colour, and general appearance.
Several of my correspondents have known Hyla ewingii around Greymouth for twenty or even thirty years. Mr. H. West has written to say that he remembers them twenty years, and Mr. West, sen., for about thirty years.
The presence of this frog in Westland in 1875 may somewhat explain a mystery which has never been cleared up: In 1875, before the Westland Institute, Mr. F. E. Clarke read a paper on “Notice of a Tadpole found in a Drain at Hokitika.” He explained that he had found one in a drain which was being cleaned out by some labourers. After discussing the amphibian he writes, “No frogs or frogs' spawn having been introduced nearer to the west coast of New Zealand than Nelson and Christ-church, it is puzzling to conjecture in what manner the little stranger arrived in a territory having a climate so thoroughly congenial to its kith and kin.”
Mr. Clarke was evidently unaware that about three years before he wrote his paper Hyla ewingii had been introduced into Greymouth, and they could easily have been brought from Greymouth as adults by some unknown person, or else perhaps the spawn was carried across the intervening twenty-four miles by some water-fowl. At any rate, there is not so much of a mystery about the occurrence, when frogs were not more than twenty-four miles away, as it would have been when they were no nearer than Nelson, about a hundred and fifty miles as a crow flies.
As this frog can climb well, I think it would be worth while introducing it into Canterbury and other parts of New Zealand in order to deal more effectively with the insect pests, as the common green frog is unable to reach insects that do not come near the ground. Already several of my specimens of Hyla ewingii have liberated themselves, and if not destroyed by birds might establish themselves around Christchurch.
In closing I should like to express my thanks to all those who have supplied me with information, and especially to Mr. H. West for the trouble he has taken in procuring live specimens for me.