"This is rather an out-of-the-way portion of the globe, and as we average only about eight mails a year you can guess they are pretty large ones. Our next mail does not reach us till about the middle of April, and I should say ought to be a record one. All our news is always about a fortnight or three weeks behind the times. This delay is caused through the mail service to Nieue being conducted by a firm of sailing ship owners. It always takes a fortnight, at least, to come from Auckland to here, and on one occasion since my arrival the voyage extended over a period of 33 days. From now on till April we experience what is known as the "hurricane season'', and captains will not risk a trip to an island with an open roadstead such as Nieue. Last January the inhabitants here experienced the worst hurricane for about 25 years. It did a considerable amount of damage, and consequently the island is on the verge of starvation just now. However, so far this season has been very favourable, and the crops are beginning to pick up wonderfully. Of course we have to wait for future developments, and if another hurricane should happen to pass over the island this year everyone might just as well get out of it, because it will be absolutely ruined.''
• A chase after a large sting-ray - called by the Maoris weku - the other afternoon was attended with rather disastrous results for a valuable dog owned by a well-known Native resident of Matapihi (says the Bay of Plenty Times).
A number of Natives, armed with three-pronged forks, were wading in shallow water in a portion of the harbour between Whareroa and Matapihi in quest of fish, when they sighted the weku and pursued it.
Two dogs were accompanying the party, and one of the canines got too close to the sting-ray, which succeeded in driving one of its stings through a foreleg and then into the body of the dog, the sting penetrating several inches in the vicinity of the heart.
The weku made off, and the dog was taken ashore, where the sting was extracted.
The poor animal lost a great quantity of blood and eventually collapsed.
The possibility of its recovery was very remote.
Subsequently, the Maoris secured a boat and resumed the pursuit of the weku, which they succeeded in killing.
The sting-ray measured about five feet across.
A few weeks ago a fishing party killed a large sting-ray, and several others have lately been sighted in shallow waters in the inner reaches of the harbour. - ODT 29.1.1916.
• COPIES OF PICTURE AVAILABLE FROM ODT FRONT OFFICE, LOWER STUART ST, OR WWW.OTAGOIMAGES.CO.NZ
