Canterbury Men In Kermadec Expedition

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30580, 24 October 1964, Page 16

Canterbury Men In Kermadec Expedition

Four Canterbury men will be members of an expedition, organised by the New Zealand Ornithological Society, which will shortly visit the Kermadec Group of islands, about 600 miles north northeast of Auckland, to make a biological survey of the stands. The expedition will

celebrate the 25th anniversary of the foundation of the society. Mr G. R. Williams, lecturer in ecology and zoology at Lincoln College, will be joint scientific leader of the expedition with Mr F. C. Kinsky of the Dominion Museum. Looking after the administrative aspects of the expedition will be Mr A. T. Edgar, of Keri Keri, who is secretary of the Ornithological Society. The party, of about 12, will also include Messrs Owen Wilkes of the Canterbury Museum, W. Sykes of the Botany Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research at Lincoln, and David Dawson, a student at Canterbury University. The expedition will leave Auckland by the H.M.N.Z.S. Lachlan on November 17 and will be away about 10 weeks. Its base will be on Raoul Island, sometimes known as Sunday Island, which is the site of a weather station. A new outboard motor and boat have been acquired to allow the party to visit islands near Raoul, and it is hoped that the Lachlan will also be able to take the expedition to the other two main islands of the group, Macaulay and Curtis, which lie some distance from Raoul.

Mr Williams said yesterday that while in the Kermadec group the expedition would be studying the birds, mammals, insects and plants and the influence of animals such as goats on the vegetation and of cats and rats on the bird population. Asked why the group had been selected for these studies, Mr Williams said the society had felt that it wanted to make a contribution to the biological knowledge of the New Zealand area. One of the neighbouring island groups would best fit this purpose and the Kermadecs happened to be the most convenient. Consideration had been given to visiting the Antipodes.