PHOTO
The remarkable discovery of bird life made by Mr R. E. Clouston, mining engineer, of Rockville in Collingwood, Nelson district, recently occurred some 26 miles from Rockville in wild country.
Mr Clouston, who knows a great deal about bird life in New Zealand discovered an entire colony of birds of a species that are becoming admittedly rare and in some cases believed to be extinct.
He could hardly believe his senses on coming into contact with a rookery of the great kiwi (Apteryx haastii) - not a few stray families, but thousands of them, sporting and grubbing about in patches of tussock land, which alternated with clumps of virgin bush; and not only kiwis (big mottled fellows), but thousands of kakapos (the night parrot, so rare that an advertisement appeared in an Auckland paper a few months ago offering £80 for a pair of them).
Mr Clouston arrived here with 25 of the big kiwi.
''I've been a bird man all my life,'' said Mr Clouston, ''and have travelled all over New Zealand, and have never seen anything like it. It is a really wonderful discovery from a scientific point of view, and will mean the preservation of the various species. These birds I have with me are to be liberated on Little Barrier Island, which, of course, is a sanctuary. Not only are there kiwi and kakapos on the block, but there are Blue Mountain duck by the dozen, saddlebacks (worth £10 each), New Zealand robins, wrens, owls, Cook's petrels (rain bird), keas, kakas, tui, makomako, warblers, riflemen, creepers (very rare), Maori hens, fantails, tomtits, and pigeons. It was a harvest of rarities. The kiwis are there because feed is good. I found great worms from 4ft to 5ft in length, the longest one I measured being 4ft 10in.''
• According to Mr G. T. Booth, the inhabitants of the town of Russell, in the Bay of Islands, are rather primitive people.
In the course of his lecture at the Y. W. C. A. on Thursday Mr Booth said that Russell was so isolated that the people had little intercourse with other settlements.
The whites and Maoris had intermarried freely in the early days, and the result was that to-day Russell contained a mixed population.
The inhabitants maintained themselves principally by fishing, and a system of barter had driven money out of the settlement.
''There is still a myth in Russell,'' continued Mr Booth, ''that a half-crown once circulated in the community. But they are a self-satisfied people, and will not leave their town. Russell to them is the hub of the universe.''
• As showing what chemistry has done for the dairy farmer during the past four years, it is interesting to note that in one factory not a hundred miles from Patea, no less than 2479lb of whey butter was made, which at the low estimate of 1s per lb brought in over £1200 to the dairy farmer.
Four years ago the extra butter fat thus saved from the whey would in some cases have been allowed to run into the nearest creek.
Another innovation that has resulted in the gain of many thousands of pounds to the dairymen is the manufacture of cheese from milk that has been pasteurised beforehand.
• A number of boys were brought before the Magistrate's Court at Foxton charged with breaking the insulators on telegraph poles.
Their mischief cost the parents £10 13s, being the amount of the damage done.
Probably these boys did not realise the harm they were doing, and it would be well if people generally knew that not only do broken insulators cause inefficiency in a telegraphic service, but the amount spent by the department in renewing them throughout New Zealand in a year is estimated as £5000. - ODT, 21.6.1915.
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