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All previous taxonomic studies on the Ectemnorhinus group of weevils have been based primarily on morphological data. While these studies are invaluable, some questions can only be addressed adequately through molecular studies. This is especially true when studying the genetic relationships and phylogeograpic patterns of taxa endemic to the South Indian Ocean Province (SIP) biotas that have long been controversial. The Ectemnorhinus group of genera is a monophyletic unit of weevils endemic to the region. The present study focused mainly on the Ectemnorhinus group of weevils found on the Prince Edward Islands archipelago (PEIA). The mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I gene was targeted when investigating relationships among members of this weevil group. On the PEIA, it is important to note that Marion Island (MI) and Prince Edward Island (PEI) differ in terms of alien invasive species, such as the introduced house mouse Mus musculus and in conservation management strategies. Since emergence, a series of volcanic and glaciation events have occurred on Marion Island, whilst Prince Edward Island has remained largely unaffected by glaciation. Phylogenetic analyses revealed the presence of two genetically and morphometrically distinct species of Ectemnorhinus weevils on PEI, whilst evidence for a single species, comprising diverse genetically discrete populations was found on MI. Based on these results, the species unique to PEI has been designated E. kuscheli n. sp., whilst the present study confirmed the synonymy between E. similis and E. marioni, the two species originally described from MI. Ectemnorhinus kucheli appears to be restricted to PEI, whereas E. similis occurs on both MI and PEI. When investigating the population dynamics of the Ectemnorhinus weevils on the PEIA, the data indicated that PEI was the first of the two islands of the PEIA to be colonized by Ectemnorhinus weevils, at an estimated time of coalescence of approximately 0.3116 million years ago (MYA). The PEI population then acted as the source population for the colonization of MI by Ectemnorhinus weevils some time before the last glaciation, approximately 10 000 to 35 000 years ago. The separation by distance of the PEI Ectemnorhinus weevils from those on MI then gave rise to two species by allopatric speciation on MI. During the last glaciations, MI was extensively glaciated with only the southwestern corner of the island being free of ice. This extensive glaciation of MI would have resulted in the eradication of all E. similis on MI except for those occurring on the ice-free southwestern corner of the island. At the end of the last glacial maximum, when the ice started to melt, the coastal areas of MI emerged first from beneath the ice and were available for re-colonization by weevils. The movement of weevils that were isolated in the south-western corner of MI, along the coastal areas of the island, was assisted by strong, frequent south-western winds. Subsequent, post-glacial volcanism during the Holocene was then responsible for the fragmentation of the new migrants, resulting in small population pockets surrounded by fresh, uninhabitable lava and subsequent divergence of each populations. When the Holocene black lava became re-colonizeable, the weevils from the different isolated populations migrated to the remainder of the island. Currently, members of the different genetically-identified populations occur in sympatry and in some cases even on the same plant, but no noticeable geneflow was detected between them. It is thus suggested that the time of isolation, before the post-glacial black lava during Holocene became hospitable, was sufficiently long and the populations sufficiently small that a number of genetically-discrete populations arose. Consequently, the present study recognises two genetically discrete populations of E. kucheli on PEI and seven discrete E. similis populations on MI that are morphologically indistinct. When examining the relationships among 13 species from five different islands within the South Indian Ocean Province (SIP) that are representative of 22 populations within the genera Palirhoeus, Bothrometopus and Ectemnorhinus, there was little support for separating the genus Palirhoeus from Bothrometopus, and no support for the morphologically-delineated species groups currently recognized within Bothrometopus. The present study shows that colonization of the Prince Edward Islands is likely to have occurred repeatedly from other islands within the SIP and that Bothrometopus parvulus on the PEIA comprises two species that are not sister taxa. The second novel con-generic species was therefore designated Bothrometopus huntleyi n. sp. and examination of the genetically identified specimens resulted in the indentification of distinguishing morphological characteristics. The analyses indicated that B. huntleyi arose approximately 0.5 million years ago from a high-altitude population that is still present on MI. The first major intra- and inter-island dispersal event occurred ~0.338 MYA, coinciding with the glaciation-free second volcanic stage on MI. Apart from this early inter-island colonisation, only one other between-island dispersal event, corresponding with the glaciation-free seventh volcanic stage, was detected. Genetically discrete weevil complexes on each of the islands of the PEIA together with the low levels of inter-island gene flow reaffirm the need to control alien invasive mice, which are restricted to MI, and which prey on these weevil species. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Zoology and Entomology / unrestricted

In 1908, two Canadian women published first novels that became instant best-sellers. Nellie McClung's Sowing Seeds in Danny initially outsold Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables, but by 1965 McClung's book had largely disappeared from Canadian consciousness. The popularity of Anne, on the other hand, has continued to the present, and Anne has received far more academic and critical attention, especially since 1985. It is only recently that Anne of Green Gables has been criticized for its ideology in the same manner as Sowing Seeds in Danny. The initial question that inspired this dissertation was why Sowing Seeds in Danny disappeared from public and critical awareness while Anne of Green Gables continued to sell well to the present day and to garner critical and popular attention into the twenty-first century. In light of the fact that both books have in recent years come under condemnation and stand charged with maternal feminism, imperial motherhood, eugenics, and racism, one must ask further why this has now happened to both Danny and Anne. What has changed? The hypothesis of the dissertation is that Danny's relatively speedy disappearance was partly due to a shift in Canadians' religious worldview over the twentieth century as church attendance and biblical literacy gradually declined. McClung's rhetorical strategies look back to the dominant Protestantism of the nineteenth century, in contrast to Montgomery's, which look forward to the twentieth-century's waning of religious faith. Although there is enough Christianity in Montgomery's novel to have made it acceptable to her largely Christian reading public at the beginning of the century, its presentation is subtle enough that it does not disturb or baffle a twenty-first-century reader in the way McClung's does. McClung's novel is so forthright in its presentation of Christianity, with its use of nineteenth-century tropes and conventions and with its moralising didacticism, that the delightful aspects of the novel were soon lost to an increasingly secular reading public. Likewise, the recent critical challenges to both novels spring from a worldview at odds with the predominantly Christian worldview of 1908. The goal of the dissertation has been to read Sowing Seeds in Danny and Anne of Green Gables within the religious contexts of a 1908 reader in order to avoid an unquestioning twenty-first-century censure of these novels, and to ascertain the reasons for their divergent popularity and recent critical condemnation.

In 1908, two Canadian women published first novels that became instant best-sellers. Nellie McClung's Sowing Seeds in Danny initially outsold Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables, but by 1965 McClung's book had largely disappeared from Canadian consciousness. The popularity of Anne, on the other hand, has continued to the present, and Anne has received far more academic and critical attention, especially since 1985. It is only recently that Anne of Green Gables has been criticized for its ideology in the same manner as Sowing Seeds in Danny. The initial question that inspired this dissertation was why Sowing Seeds in Danny disappeared from public and critical awareness while Anne of Green Gables continued to sell well to the present day and to garner critical and popular attention into the twenty-first century. In light of the fact that both books have in recent years come under condemnation and stand charged with maternal feminism, imperial motherhood, eugenics, and racism, one must ask further why this has now happened to both Danny and Anne. What has changed? The hypothesis of the dissertation is that Danny's relatively speedy disappearance was partly due to a shift in Canadians' religious worldview over the twentieth century as church attendance and biblical literacy gradually declined. McClung's rhetorical strategies look back to the dominant Protestantism of the nineteenth century, in contrast to Montgomery's, which look forward to the twentieth-century's waning of religious faith. Although there is enough Christianity in Montgomery's novel to have made it acceptable to her largely Christian reading public at the beginning of the century, its presentation is subtle enough that it does not disturb or baffle a twenty-first-century reader in the way McClung's does. McClung's novel is so forthright in its presentation of Christianity, with its use of nineteenth-century tropes and conventions and with its moralising didacticism, that the delightful aspects of the novel were soon lost to an increasingly secular reading public. Likewise, the recent critical challenges to both novels spring from a worldview at odds with the predominantly Christian worldview of 1908. The goal of the dissertation has been to read Sowing Seeds in Danny and Anne of Green Gables within the religious contexts of a 1908 reader in order to avoid an unquestioning twenty-first-century censure of these novels, and to ascertain the reasons for their divergent popularity and recent critical condemnation.

In 1908, two Canadian women published first novels that became instant best-sellers. Nellie McClung's Sowing Seeds in Danny initially outsold Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables, but by 1965 McClung's book had largely disappeared from Canadian consciousness. The popularity of Anne, on the other hand, has continued to the present, and Anne has received far more academic and critical attention, especially since 1985. It is only recently that Anne of Green Gables has been criticized for its ideology in the same manner as Sowing Seeds in Danny. The initial question that inspired this dissertation was why Sowing Seeds in Danny disappeared from public and critical awareness while Anne of Green Gables continued to sell well to the present day and to garner critical and popular attention into the twenty-first century. In light of the fact that both books have in recent years come under condemnation and stand charged with maternal feminism, imperial motherhood, eugenics, and racism, one must ask further why this has now happened to both Danny and Anne. What has changed? The hypothesis of the dissertation is that Danny's relatively speedy disappearance was partly due to a shift in Canadians' religious worldview over the twentieth century as church attendance and biblical literacy gradually declined. McClung's rhetorical strategies look back to the dominant Protestantism of the nineteenth century, in contrast to Montgomery's, which look forward to the twentieth-century's waning of religious faith. Although there is enough Christianity in Montgomery's novel to have made it acceptable to her largely Christian reading public at the beginning of the century, its presentation is subtle enough that it does not disturb or baffle a twenty-first-century reader in the way McClung's does. McClung's novel is so forthright in its presentation of Christianity, with its use of nineteenth-century tropes and conventions and with its moralising didacticism, that the delightful aspects of the novel were soon lost to an increasingly secular reading public. Likewise, the recent critical challenges to both novels spring from a worldview at odds with the predominantly Christian worldview of 1908. The goal of the dissertation has been to read Sowing Seeds in Danny and Anne of Green Gables within the religious contexts of a 1908 reader in order to avoid an unquestioning twenty-first-century censure of these novels, and to ascertain the reasons for their divergent popularity and recent critical condemnation.

In 1908, two Canadian women published first novels that became instant best-sellers. Nellie McClung's Sowing Seeds in Danny initially outsold Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables, but by 1965 McClung's book had largely disappeared from Canadian consciousness. The popularity of Anne, on the other hand, has continued to the present, and Anne has received far more academic and critical attention, especially since 1985. It is only recently that Anne of Green Gables has been criticized for its ideology in the same manner as Sowing Seeds in Danny. The initial question that inspired this dissertation was why Sowing Seeds in Danny disappeared from public and critical awareness while Anne of Green Gables continued to sell well to the present day and to garner critical and popular attention into the twenty-first century. In light of the fact that both books have in recent years come under condemnation and stand charged with maternal feminism, imperial motherhood, eugenics, and racism, one must ask further why this has now happened to both Danny and Anne. What has changed? The hypothesis of the dissertation is that Danny's relatively speedy disappearance was partly due to a shift in Canadians' religious worldview over the twentieth century as church attendance and biblical literacy gradually declined. McClung's rhetorical strategies look back to the dominant Protestantism of the nineteenth century, in contrast to Montgomery's, which look forward to the twentieth-century's waning of religious faith. Although there is enough Christianity in Montgomery's novel to have made it acceptable to her largely Christian reading public at the beginning of the century, its presentation is subtle enough that it does not disturb or baffle a twenty-first-century reader in the way McClung's does. McClung's novel is so forthright in its presentation of Christianity, with its use of nineteenth-century tropes and conventions and with its moralising didacticism, that the delightful aspects of the novel were soon lost to an increasingly secular reading public. Likewise, the recent critical challenges to both novels spring from a worldview at odds with the predominantly Christian worldview of 1908. The goal of the dissertation has been to read Sowing Seeds in Danny and Anne of Green Gables within the religious contexts of a 1908 reader in order to avoid an unquestioning twenty-first-century censure of these novels, and to ascertain the reasons for their divergent popularity and recent critical condemnation.

This dissertation explores how colonial administrators on each side of the Atlantic used the British Survey of North America to serve their governments’ as well as their personal objectives. Specifically, it connects the execution and oversight of the General Survey in the northern and southern theatres, along with the intelligence it provided, with the actions of key decision-makers and influencers, including the Presidents of the Board of Trade (latterly, the Secretaries of the American Department) and key provincial governors. Having abandoned their posture of ‘Salutary Neglect’ towards colonial affairs in favour of one that proactively and more centrally sought ways to develop and exploit their North American assets following the Severn Years’ War, the British needed better geographic information to guide their decision making. Thus, the General Survey of British North America, under the umbrella of the Board of Trade, was conceived. Officially sponsored from 1764-1775, the programme aimed to survey and analyse the attributes and economic potential of Britain’s newly acquired regions in North America, leading to an accurate general map of their North American empire when joined to other regional mapping programmes. The onset of the American Revolution brought an inevitable end to the General Survey before a connected map could be completed. Under the excellent leadership of Samuel Holland, the surveyor general of the Northern District, however, the British administration received surveys and reports that were of great relevance to high-level administration. In the Southern District, Holland’s counterpart, the mercurial William Gerard De Brahm, while producing reports of high quality, was less able to juggle the often conflicting priorities of provincial and London-based stakeholders. Consequently, results were less successful. De Brahm was recalled in 1771, leaving others to complete the work.