CHRISTCHURCH.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 301, 14 September 1908, Page 3

CHRISTCHURCH.

September 12. The last of a series of weekly popular lectures was given by Sir. Edgar Stead,' wh< spoke on ornithology in New. Zealand; and incidontally told a number of interesting bird stories. Among tho illustrative pictures that ho showed was ono of a penguin sitting on its. eggs. A day or two before the photograph was taken the bird had accounted foi a stoat, with marauding intentions. Having had muck previous experience with young mutton, birds","the stoat went in confidently; and seized the penguin by the throat. Bui his teeth had not even gone through tlu thick layer of fat by which the penguin was kept warm in cold weather, before the penguin and its companions hauled the stoaf back, and battered him with their powerful flippers till they, had broken every bono in his body. Speaking of black-billod gulls, Mr. Stead said that, during tho 'breeding season, they wore extremely noisy, shrieking and squawking continually. Their method oi fighting was simply to sit and shriek at each other. On one occasion Mr. Stead said when ho was near a colony of the small gulls a hare got up aiid ran straight in among tli£ nests. Hundreds' of birds immediately rose, and, wheeling round and round, screeched at the luckless animal. It was the most awful experience the poor beast had ever had. It just sat up on its haunches, pawed at the air with its front legs, and screamed. Then it lay down, shut its eyes, and waited for the end. It stayed thero till mou camo up and drove the birds away, The kea, Mr. Stead said, was general); known as a bird most difficult t-o keep 111 captivity. Time degenerated the bird, as it simply waited for the next appetite and the next feed, but by and bye the bird either pined ' away, stopped eating, and died, or more 1 usually over-ate himself, and thus achieved a happier end. When he himself had ob--1 tained "some keas, he thought that perhaps 1 the birds usually died from sheer boredom, and that was, he believed, actually the case. ' They are oxtromely inquisitive and intelli--1 gent, and so ho gave them a lot of toys, ' empty tins, little bells to ring, and drain ' pipes to run into—in fact, all tho amuse- ' ments that the back country could have ' afforded, with a few refinements of civilisa- ' tion in addition. The result was that ho 1 now had at home some young keas, the only ones ever bred in captivity. ■ Trout. 1 At a meeting of. the council of the South ' Canterbury Acclimatisation Society a motion ' was passed suggesting to the Marine Depart--1 ment that the weight of trout allowed to bo ; placed in cold storage by any ono angler, ' oither in or out of season, should be limited ' to 1121b. With a view to checking "pothuntinft," the society decided that in future 1 no angler should be allowed to take moro ' than 601b. weight' of fish in twenty-four ' hours. Tho soci.ety expressed its strong ap- ' prbval of a suggestion from the Itotorua ! R-od and Gun Club that effect should not bo 1 given to the proposal to allow Maoris to fish rfnd shoot at their own will, and without licenses. £250 in Notes Burned. > A peculiar explanation of the disappear--5 anco of some cash assets is alleged to nave ' been given at a private meeting of creditors f held not a hundred miles from Christehurch. 1 Tho gentleman who was meeting his creditors 3 stated that, having decided to change his ' bank, he had drawn out tho amount standing to his credit, but arrived too lato at the bank to which ho had decided to transfer his ac- ' count. Ho took tlm money (about £250) !! homo, and, considering the grate would, bo ' the safest placo for it, lie consequently de- ' posited tho notes there. In tho morning his • wifo arose, and, not knowing that tho grate ' had been selected as a safe deposit, she lit > the fire, and the £250 went up the chinmev. 3 - Flowering Plants. The Philosophical Institute of Canterbury s has adopted a scheme for obtaining informal tion in regard to the changes. which the,

seasons bring about in native flowering plants. Seasonal changes are dealt with by two/methods. The phonological methods demand exact data as to the flowering, leaving/ or fruiting of certain plants in different districts. These changes are correlated with the climate, and observations of that character are a branch of meteorology. Hy the biological method investigators try to ascertain the exact condition of every plant at every season of the year, not for climatic records, but for information connected with the lifo histories of the different species of /plants. It is, the biological aspect, of the subject that the institute intends to study. It has set up a small committee to carry out tho scheme, but asks for the co-operation of all persons who are interested in the subject. Information dealing with native plants is mainly sought. Notes on trees in plantations and on introduced plants that grow wild will also bo welcome, but no information is required in regard to garden plants. Tho observations need not necessarily be made in tho bush. The sand hills, salt meadows, tussock slopes, river beds, and other localities supply material. Notes as to the locality of tho observations and the height above sealevel arc requested in each case if possible. The Weka. Mr. E. R. Waite, curator of Canterbury Museum, has received an interesting specimen of the North Island woodhen (weka). Instead of having a rusty brown plumage, as it ought to have, it is a dirty, ashy grey. In a few places on its back, there are a fewlight brown feathers, but otherwise it is utterly devoid of its natural colours. Apparently it was on tho road to complete albinism, or white plumage, when it was killed. Several cases of Albino wekas have been recorded. Land Sale. A farmer in the Ashburton County, who bought a fairly largo area of . land when it was much cheaper than it is to-day, is reported to have sold out at a clear profit of over £8000. It is said that the same farmer has for sevaral years made a profit of 20s. per year out of each breeding ewe of a large llock owned by him. White Australia. The Rev. W. J. L. Closs, who has arrived from Ipswich (Queensland) to tako up tho pastorato of Trinity Congregational Church, ill Christchurch, was educated in Dunedin, and in tho early portion of his ministry spent two years in charge of Mount Eden (Auckland) Church. For moro than twenty years ho tas been in Australia. Speaking to intorviewcrs regarding tho White Australia policy, in which ho takes considerable interest, Air. Closs said that ho had watched'jts working in Queensland, and public feeling was dccidedly ill favour of tho policy. He thought that when full particulars are available regarding tho murders of repatriated Kanakas it would be found that they were nothing like what they, had been reported to be. In somo cases the Kanakas had not been returned to their own particular island, with tho result that they were landed amongst a hc-stile people, and probably fell victims to old-standing tribal feuds. Ho did not think that the Queensland sugar industry had suffered to any appreciable extent as tho result of tho. adoption of the Whito Australia policy. It was alleged, however, that tho white worker was not so reliable as tho Kanaka was. Some whito workers, when they got their wages, went oil the- "razzlo dazzle," and were not available when wanted, and sugar was a crop that could not bo kept waiting. Tho Kanaka, on tho other hand, was always available. ' ■