Minister parries shooting request

A mass of evidence is accumulating, all going to show that it is necessary in certain parts of the South Island to have an open season, if only a short one, for the shooting of the so-called paradise duck. This is not only in the interests of the farmers but also in the interests of the birds themselves. They are becoming so tame that they are likely to lose their instinct for self-preservation, and a brief shooting season will scatter them from the farm lands to wilder regions, where they will not be so easily destroyed. If in some districts they are not scattered they will be poisoned, and this would hasten the extinction of one of our most beautiful and interesting birds. The same remarks are to a certain extent applicable to the pukeko. One meets with the pukeko in many places in the North Island, but the paradise duck is a rarity. He was never so numerous in the North as he was in the South. The Minister, Hon W. Downie Stewart, who is as keen as anyone to protect New Zealand bird life, made a very convincing reply to the deputation that waited upon him on the subject. He had held back the notification in regard to a short season for pukeko and paradise duck, as he wished not to take final action before hearing what the deputation had to say.

"So far as I am concerned, it is a question of the weight of the evidence I have as to the best method of assisting to preserve bird life. I have to be guided by the evidence that comes to our department from all quarters."

Councils, public support expo

The project for holding an exhibition in Dunedin in 1925 may now be said to have been fairly launched. Last night the desirability of the scheme was formally affirmed by a meeting representative of the local bodies and principal institutions of the city as well as of the commercial and industrial interests. The number of citizens who responded to the Mayor’s invitation to attend this meeting and who unanimously approved of the proposal furnished in itself a striking proof of the existence of a firm belief that the time is ripe for holding an exhibition in Dunedin upon an imposing scale, whether it be Imperial or international. We feel that the public is to be congratulated upon the step which is now being taken, for it is one that will certainly contribute in a marked degree to the advancement and material welfare of the city and provincial district. — editorial

Convolvulus given proper name

An introduced plant known popularly as the white convolvulus is becoming so plentiful in New Zealand as to earn a reputation as a serious nuisance.

It is regarded generally as a variety of Calystegia sepium, the common bind weed. Unknown in New Zealand 50 years ago, it is found now almost everywhere in the country. It carries its long white runners underground for many yards in a single season.

Great difficulty is experienced in eradicating it. As it does not produce seed in our climate, apparently for want of the special fertilising insect, its wide distribution is hard to understand at first, but even the tiniest scrap of the white underground stems will produce a large plant in a single season, and, evidently, it may be carried about in soil, in mud, on cart wheels, or even on boots. — ODT, 10.4.1923

Compiled by Peter Dowden