IN THE WILD. ON KAPITI.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 49, 27 February 1908, Page 8

IN THE WILD. ON KAPITI.

SANCTUARY THREATENED WITH FIRE. The tui sang to him by day, and tho wcka cried out in the night. For six days and nights Mr. J. Drummond, a-well-known lover of birds, had the Kapiti sanctuary to himself, and far away fiom the talk about Webb and Tresklder he was able to watch the' wild things in the home which the Government has made sacred for them. Talking with a Post representative today, Mr. Drummond mentioned that the birds weic all flourishing, especially the robins, w lu'ch were onco thought to be dying out. The little whitehead may be seen by tho hundred. Buller stated that he shot tho last of. this species, and did j not leavo a representative of this pretty i bird, something !ike a canary, with a j white head, but he was wrong for once. | Tuis, too, are numerous, and other birds are well represented. The parrake-ets recently introduced from the southern islands, and the flightless ducks from the Auckland Islands, have taken kindly to their new homo. The birds have only one natural enomy, the wild cat, which is unnatural from the birds' point of view, for tho pest was imported. This animal will require extinction ; ' otherwise the birds generally, and the flightless ducks particularly, will be in for sad days by-and-byo. Even on wild Kapiti the Roads Department is represented. The executive officers and the workors are goats — wild goatf. They have cut tracks all over the landscape. The tribes are many, and with their omnivorous mouths and active hoovis they have cleared passages in all directions. They have made the inner recesses very accessible, but at great cost to the flora. The undergrowth nas been denud-ed till the stems of the trees stand up b.-re like the unnarchs of the Australian woods. Ihis clearance among the trees gives the forest a character foreign to all other areas of New Zealand bush. Tho goat's destruction of vegetation in Kapiti is not desirable, but the animal's presence might be beneficial on spots which are not so sacred. Here is a chance for the long-headed to woik out a scheme for the proper exploitation of the goat as a pioneer, an a?ent for securing spice fOT grass and simultaneously saving , the big timber for better purposes than fire, which after all does its dealing work very roughly. The other day, states Mr. Drummond, the forest of the sanctuary was threatened with ruination by fire, and if tho flames had gained a grip it would have be-en good-bye to the birds. Maoris hold 1300 of the 6000 acres enclosed by the Kapiti coast. A fire started on the natives' grass lands, and swept away to the- fringe of the forest. There by a lucky chance it died away. It is considered that the sanctuatry will not be safe if the Maoris are allowed to remain in occupation. It is contended that tho -Government should secure possession of the whole island ; otherwise the purpose of the present reservation might be defeated, any day, for all times. The heTbage is like tinder. An ember, a match carelessly dropped, might set the wholo place ablaze.