e southern cross is a very great delusion. It isn't a
cross. It is a kite, a kite upside down, an irregular kite
upside down, with only three respectable stars and one very
poor and very much out of place. Near it, however, is a truly
mysterious and interesting object called the coal sack: it is
a black patch in the sky distinctly darker than all the rest of
the heavens. No star shines through it. The proper name for it
is the black Magellan cloud."

1868. Mrs. Riddell, `Lay of Far South,' p. 4:

"Yet do I not regret the loss,
Thou hast thy gleaming Southern Cross."

1887. R. M. Praed, `Longleat of Kooralbyn,' c. iv. p. 35:

"The Southern Cross rose gem-like above the horizon."

<hw>Spade-press</hw>, <i>n</i>. a make-shift wool-press in
which the fleeces are rammed down with a spade.

1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. xvii. p. 202:

"The spade-press--that friendly adjunct of the pioneer
squatter's humble wool-shed."

<hw>Spaniard</hw>, <i>n</i>. a prickly bushy grass of New
Zealand, <i>Aciphylla colensoi</i>.

1857. `Paul's Letters from Canterbury,' p. 108:

"The country through which I have passed has been most
<i>savage</i>, one mass of <i>Spaniards</i>."

1862. J. Von Haast, `Geology of Westland,' p. 25:

"Groves of large specimens of <i>Discaria toumatoo</i>,
the Wild Irishman of the settlers, formed with the gigantic
<i>Aciphylla Colensoi</i>, the Spaniard or Bayonet-grass,
an often impenetrable thicket."

1863. S. Butler, `First Year of Canterbury Settlement,' p. 67:

"The Spaniard (spear-grass or bayonet-grass) `piked us intil
the bane,' and I assure you we were hard set to make any
headway at all."

1875. Lady Barker, `Station Amusements in New Zealand,' p. 35:

"The least touch of this green bayonet draws blood, and a fall
<i>into</i> a <i>Spaniard</i> is a thing to be remembered all
one's life."

1882. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' p. 287:

"Carefully avoiding contact with the long-armed leaves of
Spaniards (<i>Aciphylla</i>), which here attain the larger
dimensions, carrying flower-spikes up to six feet long."

1890. `Transactions of the New Zealand Institute,'
vol. xxiii. p. 197:

"Here were rats which lived under the dead leaves of the
prickly `<i>Spaniard</i>,' and possibly fed on the roots.
The <i>Spaniard</i> leaves forked into stiff upright fingers
about 1 in. wide, ending in an exceedingly stiff pricking point."

1896. `Otago Witness,' May 7,