SORROWS OF WATERFOWL

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume LXIV, Issue 6576, 13 October 1939, Page 3

SORROWS OF WATERFOWL

HARD TASK TO SURVIVE

"Thoughtless members of the public"—they are numerous—are blamed for the decrease of native ducks and Australian black swans on lalies of the Rotorua wonderland. Nesting grounds have been spoilt and nests have been robbed.

"Files of the Forest and Bird Protection Society, show that those 'thoughtless members" do similar harm in other districts. "What a struggle the biids have to survive!" says a member.' On one side the ducks see some of their favourite natural haunts, such as swamps and lagoons, drained away by man's insistence on the gospel that the human species is the only one with a real right to live on the broad bosom of Mother Earth. On the other side, the ducks see a continuous improvement in facilities for death dealers—-i'ar reaching highways, speedy motor cars, highly efficient fire arm? and ammunition. It is a one-sided war."

Londoners are drinking considerably less beer than they did, but smoking four times as much tobacco—according to the latest statistics. Well, it's the same story in New Zealand, | and the greatly increased demand for the weed is not altogether due to the increase in population. It 8 largely attributable to the rate at which we all live now ana the rush and hurry of modern life. People crave for something to relieve the nervous tension, and find that tobacco helps considerably. The ever growing demand for the latter has been far more marked in New Zealand since the introduction of "toasted" which haa fairly captured the public taste and is actually preferred by smokers innumerable to the imported article. This is by no means .surprising because "toasted" is not only of the very highest grade but so free, comparatively, from nicotinc, thanks to toasting, as to be safe for even the heaviest smoker. The five brands, Navy Cut No. 3 (Bulldog), Cut Hug No. 10 (Bullshead), Cavendish, Riverhead Gold and Desert Gold, are as near perfection as tobacco can well be.