FOR THE BOYS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 177, 28 July 1928, Page 2 (Supplement)

FOR THE BOYS.

THE MIGHTIEST OF NATURE'S CHILDREN.

WHOLESALE HUNTING.

Dear Boys,-.— As we live in tins delightful country, noted throughout the world for wl-VT " J £ Va l f t « ree I n fi< j lds « nd gushing geysers, we realise what a big part the whaler played in the colonising of New Zealand. Yet do we realise that because of these whalers, the largest animal that the world knows is likely to soon be extinct? It is a fact, nevertheless, and the thing* 1 B,ant " P erila P® tfa e most interesting of any living Once, countless thousands of years ago, he lived on the land, a monster of the land and water. We might compare him to the rhinoceros of to-day. Eventually this monster was driven from the land, and, taking to the vast expanse of open sea, began a new era. Her a, with food in plenty, the giant reigned supreme, swimming all day long, and eventually losing the use of his legs entirely, developing in their stead the tons that guide him through the oceans in this, the twentieth century. ror some years New Zealand held the record for the largest known mammal m the world. This was the Okarito whale, whose skeleton is in the Canterbury Museum. It was found dead on the sea beach near Qkarito, a small village in South Westland, in February, 1908. A very Car Co-it conscientious measurement showed that its length, in the flesh, Wa *. c ° r " ft measuretl over th e curves of its back. It held the record until September, 1918, when a whale was found stranded at Corvisart Bay, near Streaky Bay, at the eastern extremity of the Australian Bight, South Australia, which measured in a 'straight line 87ft 4in. T M e j W i ale '* mOSt feared enemy is man. In the olden days, when men sailed the seas in wooden ships and hunted these monsters with handflung harpoons, the whale had at least a chance of living, but in 1869. when the harpoon bomb fired by a gun came into use, their end was sighted,,. . " noi 'he blubber and whalebone the most marketable of commodities ? To-day the mode of slaughter is reduced to a fine art, and within iff » j tW °- * new enemy « r ®Pt out into the icy waters of the whale s domain. It is the factory ship, a tramp steamer equipped with a . •? ?",' ,maU craft . th » l hunt the whale, harpoon it, and tow it to the side of the mother ship, where the carcase is hauled aboard and dealt with by the latest appliances. With such unlimited facilities for massacre it is feared that the mighty whale that has haunted land and then sea for countless centuries will soon disappear, and only when it is no more than a figure in the big book of Zoology, will people realise what a terrible mistake they made in exterminating such a beast, for even though its products are of exceptional value, they can be duplicated, but the life, the mammal itself, can never be recreated, and once lost is gone forever, terrible mistake they made in exterminating such a beast, for even though its products are of exceptional value, they can be , T [ | , duplicated, but the life, the /lj/ jT, - mammal itself, can never be I recreated, and once lost is gone forever.