Add a page programatically

Hi,
I would like to add a page by defining it in my themes functions.php. My theme relies on some pages with page templates, and I would like these to be generated automatically when I install the theme, rather than adding them manually. Is there a way to do this?

Also, I would like to hide it from the wp-admin > Pages menu.

many thanks,
Charley

Edit: hiding pages from wp-admin

//Exclude pages from the wp-admin > Pages menu
add_filter( 'parse_query', 'exclude_pages_from_admin' );
function exclude_pages_from_admin($query) {
    global $pagenow,$post_type;
    if (is_admin() && $pagenow=='edit.php' && $post_type =='page') {
        $query->query_vars['post__not_in'] = array('47');
    }
}