Francis Irvine, who had previously served in the British Army in India and Afghanistan, and who had settled in Australia from 1820-24, before falling out with Sydney’s governing elite, writes on New Zealand flax and Merino sheep to Charles Waterton (1782-1865) an English naturalist, plantation overseer, and explorer, best known for his pioneering conservation work.

“Dear Sir,

… At Rotterdam I received a letter from Mr. Vanderbosch of Wilhelminasdorp, near Goes in Zealand, a young, intelligent and enterprising Gentleman farmer on a very large scale. He and his lady were our fellow passengers for a long way on the Rhine and we enjoyed their society very much. I mentioned to him two objects as deserving his attention – the Scotch yellow turnip, or the Phormium tenax or what is more familiarly known as New Zealand flax. He writes me he has now a thriving field  of the former and three plants of the latter. “Ces plantes, he continues, ne sont parvenus de Leide; mais on m’a bien recommandé de les Garanti de vent du Nord et de les couvrir en Lyon. On croit cette plante très sensible aux atteintes du Mauvais temps A nullement faite pour être cultivée en grand. Toutefois mes plantes se touvent en très bon état et je tacherai de les acclimater. Cependant je reek beaucoup d’avoir un reek exact du phormium tenax et j’ose croire que vous, qui m’avez fait connaitre cette plante, voudrez bien me mettre en état d’en profiter. Peutêtre il ay a quelqa ouvrage les informations nécessaires. Je me rappelle d’avoir lu, il y a longtemps, dans une Révue francaise un description du phormium avec des notes sur la quantité de reekde cables qu’on en fabrique annuellement, qui etait traduit on estrait d’un ouvrage anglaise – Depuis quelques mois un petit trousseau du Leicestershire se trouve ici pour ameliorer notre race, mais j’ai vu en Allemagne des “Leicester sheep” qui etoient meilleurs la vrai race formé par Mr. Bakewell, et qui a recu le nom de Dishley, est elle toujours preferee en Angleterre pour la boucherie et le pris des Villiers est il encore si elevé? – Je posade ansi une famille de merinos de Sage (Electoral schafe) qui sont de premier qualité – Je sui propose de faire des experiances utiles sur ces deux races si differentes et oposseés”

“… As to the phormium tenax, I formed its acquaintance in New South Wales, where it has been introduced from N. Zealand and succeeds very well. From data I collected there the produce per acre must be exceedingly great per annum; but it will naturally be less in colder climates. Its principal habitats are the coasts of Madagascar and N. Zealand, in which last it goes as high as 47⁰ nearly. I was told it is found native in islands thereabouts in 49⁰ of 50⁰.It is true, in such islands in a great ocean frost is seldom, perhaps never, known. It is said to be indigenous to the coast of Kerry and to thrive in Wales.

It is supposable that plants descended from roots obtained from the Bay of Islands, the port of N.Z. most frequented by Europeans, in Lat. 33⁰ or thereabouts, would not be so hardy as those descended from ancestry in 47⁰ l., especially as the mode of propagation is almost always viviparous. Were I a person of fortune, I would attend to this interesting plant, which yields a fibre better than the best hemp in strength as 5:4 and more beautiful than the finest flax. There are varieties, in one of which the green skin peels off easily without mechanical or other means being needed for separating it from the valuable fibre. Upwards of 1000 tons of this fibre are annually imported into Britain direct from N.Z. or via N. S. Wales. But probably nothing of this is new to you.

As to sheep, tho’ Mr. Van der Bosch appears to be trying merinos on a small scale he agreed with me in opinion that for his land and climate , the large long wooled animal is preferable. Lincolnshire (I mean the fens) is of all our counties that which most resembles Zealand in physical circumstances.

You have probably in the course of your travels been more than once obliged to dispatch, unaltered, a letter which did not please you, simply because you had not time to write a new one. I am just so situated at present. I am the more led to expect you will excuse this scrawl, as I am aware of your kindness of character and your zeal for natural science, especially in its applications to human life …. F. Irvine”       

Charles Waterton was born at Walton Hall, Wakefield, Yorkshire. He was educated at Stonyhurst College in Lancashire. In 1804 he travelled to British Guiana to take charge of his uncle’s slave plantations near Georgetown. In 1812 he began exploring the interior of the colony, making at least four journeys between 1812 and 1824 when he reached Brazil walking barefoot in the rainy season. He described his travels and discoveries in his book Waterton’s Wanderings in South America, (1825), which inspired such British schoolboys as Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace. His explorations laid to rest the persistent myth of Raleigh’s Lake Parime by suggesting that the seasonal flooding of the Rupunni savannah had been misidentified as a lake.

Waterton was a skilled taxidermist and preserved many of the animals he encountered on his expeditions. While he was in British Guiana Waterton taught his skills to one of his uncle’s slaves, John Edmonstone. Edmonstone, by then freed and practicing taxidermy in Edinburgh, in turn taught the teenage Darwin.

In the 1820’s Waterton returned to Walton Hall and built a nine-foot high wall around three miles of the estate. Turning it into the world’s first wildfowl and nature reserve. He also invented the bird nesting box. Waterton was an early opponent of pollution. He fought a long-running court case against the owners of a soap works that had been established near his estate in 1839 and leached poisonous chemicals which damaged the trees in his park and polluted his lake. He was eventually successful in having the soap works moved.