title: Liberation and spread of stoats (Mustela erminea) and weasels (M. nivalis) in New Zealand, 1883-1920

authors: King, Carolyn M.

subjects: Science & Technology

abstract: This paper reviews the timing and spread of weasels and stoats across the South and North Islands of New Zealand during the late nineteenth century, entirely from historical records. The flavour of the debates and the assumptions that led to the commissioning of private and government shipments of these animals are best appreciated from the original documents. I describe the sites of the early deliberate releases in Otago, Canterbury, Marlborough, and Wairarapa, and list contemporary observations of the subsequent dispersal of the released animals to named locations in Southland, Westland, Wellington, Hawke’s Bay, Auckland and Northland. Originally, weasels were landed in far greater numbers than stoats (2622 weasels and 963 stoats listed in shipment records) and, while at first they were very abundant, they are now much less abundant than stoats. Two non-exclusive hypotheses could explain this historic change: (1) depletion of supplies of their preferred small prey including birds, mice, roosting bats, lizards, frogs and invertebrates, and (2) competition with stoats. Contemporary historic written observations on the first impacts of the arrivals of weasels and stoats on the native fauna offer graphic illustrations of what has been lost, but usually failed to consider the previous impacts of the abundant rats (Rattus exulans since the late 13th century, and R. norvegicus since 1770s–90s), and cannot now be distinguished from the activities of R. rattus arriving in the 1860s–90s.

text: Liberation and spread of stoats (Mustela erminea) and weasels (M. nivalis) in New Zealand, 1883-1920 This paper reviews the timing and spread of weasels and stoats across the South and North Islands of New Zealand during the late nineteenth century, entirely from historical records. The flavour of the debates and the assumptions that led to the commissioning of private and government shipments of these animals are best appreciated from the original documents. I describe the sites of the early deliberate releases in Otago, Canterbury, Marlborough, and Wairarapa, and list contemporary observations of the subsequent dispersal of the released animals to named locations in Southland, Westland, Wellington, Hawke’s Bay, Auckland and Northland. Originally, weasels were landed in far greater numbers than stoats (2622 weasels and 963 stoats listed in shipment records) and, while at first they were very abundant, they are now much less abundant than stoats. Two non-exclusive hypotheses could explain this historic change: (1) depletion of supplies of their preferred small prey including birds, mice, roosting bats, lizards, frogs and invertebrates, and (2) competition with stoats. Contemporary historic written observations on the first impacts of the arrivals of weasels and stoats on the native fauna offer graphic illustrations of what has been lost, but usually failed to consider the previous impacts of the abundant rats (Rattus exulans since the late 13th century, and R. norvegicus since 1770s–90s), and cannot now be distinguished from the activities of R. rattus arriving in the 1860s–90s.

year: 2017

title: Constraints on the thermal and tectonic evolution of Greymouth coalfield

authors: Kamp, Peter J.J.

subjects: Greymouth Coalfield

abstract: The southern end of the Paparoa Range in Westland, South Island, New Zealand, comprises an asymmetrical, southward plunging, faulted (Brunner-Mt Davy) anticline, the eastern limb of which is common with the western limb of an asymmetrical (Grey Valley) syncline forming a Neogene foreland basin (Grey Valley Trough). The faulted anticline is a classic inversion structure: compression during the Neogene, associated with the development of the modern Australia-Pacific plate boundary, caused a pre-existing normal fault zone, about which a late Cretaceous-Oligocene extensional half graben had formed (Paparoa Trough), to change its sense of displacement. The resulting basement loading formed the foreland basin, containing up to 3 km of mainly marine sedimentary section. 
Fission track results for apatite concentrates from 41 shallow drillhole and outcrop samples from the Greymouth Coalfield part of the Brunner-Mt Davy Anticline are reported and interpreted, to better establish the timing and amount of inversion, and hence the mechanism of inversion. The fission track results integrated with modelling of vitrinite reflectance data, show that the maximum paleotemperatures experienced during burial of the Late Cretaceous and mid-Eocene coal-bearing succession everywhere exceeded 85deg.C, and reached a peak of 180deg.C along the axis of the former basin. Cooling from maximum temperatures occurred during three discrete phases: 20-15 Ma, 12-7 Ma, and c. 2 Ma to the present. The amount of denudation has been variable across the inverted basin, decreasing westward from a maximum of c. 2.5 km during the first deformation phase, c. 1.2 km during the second phase, and 1.4 km during the third phase. It appears that exhumation over the coalfield continued for about 2 m.y. beyond the biostratigraphically determined time ranges of each of two synorogenic unconformities along the western limb of the Grey Valley Syncline. Stick-slip behaviour on the range front fault that localised the inversion is inferred. The tectonic evolution of the anticline-syncline pair at the southern end of the Paparoa Range, is therefore identical in style, and similar in timing, to the development of the Papahaua Range-Westport Trough across the Kongahu Fault Zone, in the vicinity of Buller Coalfield.

text: Constraints on the thermal and tectonic evolution of Greymouth coalfield The southern end of the Paparoa Range in Westland, South Island, New Zealand, comprises an asymmetrical, southward plunging, faulted (Brunner-Mt Davy) anticline, the eastern limb of which is common with the western limb of an asymmetrical (Grey Valley) syncline forming a Neogene foreland basin (Grey Valley Trough). The faulted anticline is a classic inversion structure: compression during the Neogene, associated with the development of the modern Australia-Pacific plate boundary, caused a pre-existing normal fault zone, about which a late Cretaceous-Oligocene extensional half graben had formed (Paparoa Trough), to change its sense of displacement. The resulting basement loading formed the foreland basin, containing up to 3 km of mainly marine sedimentary section. 
Fission track results for apatite concentrates from 41 shallow drillhole and outcrop samples from the Greymouth Coalfield part of the Brunner-Mt Davy Anticline are reported and interpreted, to better establish the timing and amount of inversion, and hence the mechanism of inversion. The fission track results integrated with modelling of vitrinite reflectance data, show that the maximum paleotemperatures experienced during burial of the Late Cretaceous and mid-Eocene coal-bearing succession everywhere exceeded 85deg.C, and reached a peak of 180deg.C along the axis of the former basin. Cooling from maximum temperatures occurred during three discrete phases: 20-15 Ma, 12-7 Ma, and c. 2 Ma to the present. The amount of denudation has been variable across the inverted basin, decreasing westward from a maximum of c. 2.5 km during the first deformation phase, c. 1.2 km during the second phase, and 1.4 km during the third phase. It appears that exhumation over the coalfield continued for about 2 m.y. beyond the biostratigraphically determined time ranges of each of two synorogenic unconformities along the western limb of the Grey Valley Syncline. Stick-slip behaviour on the range front fault that localised the inversion is inferred. The tectonic evolution of the anticline-syncline pair at the southern end of the Paparoa Range, is therefore identical in style, and similar in timing, to the development of the Papahaua Range-Westport Trough across the Kongahu Fault Zone, in the vicinity of Buller Coalfield.

year: 1999

title: New Zealand English and Te Reo Māori: A critical perspective on the loanword narrative using data from translingual picturebooks

authors: Barbour, Julie Renee

subjects: language contact

abstract: Aims/Purpose: New Zealand English has been characterised by the use of vocabulary ‘borrowed’ from the Indigenous Māori language since early contact between English and Māori speakers. In this paper, we consider the relevance of the ‘loanword narrative’ to New Zealand English, examining data from translingual picturebooks published in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Design/Data: We built a small corpus of 10 translingual picturebooks spanning a 30-year period beginning in the early years of Māori language revitalisation.
Analysis: We applied techniques of language analysis from descriptive linguistics, including studies of loanwords.
Findings: We find some evidence of linguistic ‘borrowing’.
Originality: However, in texts created by Māori content creators, with Māori cultural themes, a language practice akin to pedagogical code-switching or pedagogical translanguaging is observed. Māori content creators alternate between languages, treating Māori lexemes as distinct from NZE, preserving Māori orthographic traditions, and providing translation, explanation, or contextual support of Māori lexemes for NZE reader comprehension. Our observations find parallels in translanguaging studies in bilingual early childhood settings, and they are supported by new psycholinguistic research that has identified the development of substantial body of linguistic knowledge about the Māori language by non-Māori speakers through societal exposure.
Significance: We argue that the prevailing loanword narrative does not account for Māori language usage in translingual picturebooks developed by Māori content creators. Rather, we find a clear pattern of differentiation between Māori and NZE.

text: New Zealand English and Te Reo Māori: A critical perspective on the loanword narrative using data from translingual picturebooks Aims/Purpose: New Zealand English has been characterised by the use of vocabulary ‘borrowed’ from the Indigenous Māori language since early contact between English and Māori speakers. In this paper, we consider the relevance of the ‘loanword narrative’ to New Zealand English, examining data from translingual picturebooks published in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Design/Data: We built a small corpus of 10 translingual picturebooks spanning a 30-year period beginning in the early years of Māori language revitalisation.
Analysis: We applied techniques of language analysis from descriptive linguistics, including studies of loanwords.
Findings: We find some evidence of linguistic ‘borrowing’.
Originality: However, in texts created by Māori content creators, with Māori cultural themes, a language practice akin to pedagogical code-switching or pedagogical translanguaging is observed. Māori content creators alternate between languages, treating Māori lexemes as distinct from NZE, preserving Māori orthographic traditions, and providing translation, explanation, or contextual support of Māori lexemes for NZE reader comprehension. Our observations find parallels in translanguaging studies in bilingual early childhood settings, and they are supported by new psycholinguistic research that has identified the development of substantial body of linguistic knowledge about the Māori language by non-Māori speakers through societal exposure.
Significance: We argue that the prevailing loanword narrative does not account for Māori language usage in translingual picturebooks developed by Māori content creators. Rather, we find a clear pattern of differentiation between Māori and NZE.

year: 2025