SPOILT PLUMAGE

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 37, 14 February 1938, Page 10

SPOILT PLUMAGE

SWANS IN TROUBLE

POLLUTION OF STREAMS

Tragic vic'ims of the pollution of their pretty pond by oily. material washed off sonic road into the creek' feeding their lakelet, the two swans in the Botanical Gardens nave had. their feathers so impregnated that they may have to be destroyed. These graceful birds, occasionally with their goslings, have been the.pleasure o£ young and old visitors to the gardens for years. The picture that they made, with their reflections mingling with those of the surrounding pungas, was a delight on windless days.

There is some hope that the birds may be saved. They have been taken to the Zoo. and the curator, lV^r. J. Langridge, thinks he may' be able to treat them successfully.

Oil pollution has-come tt> be one of the serious problems of the day. It has long been a matter for legislation regarding ships which, on account of the danger to the bird life of the coasts, are not allowed to dump oil refuse within three miles of the shore. It has been referred to frequently recently in connection with the pollution of rivers, some in the Wellington district, and acclimatisation societies have been interested in this and forms of industrial river pollution which destroy fish in the rivers. Various forms of sealed road surface, particularly when the coat just finished is flooded by heavy rain in warm,, weather such as has been recently experienced, pass oily or bituminous matter into stormwater drains, many of which follow the old procedure of discharging into open streams. The result is fatal to fish of all kinds in the streams,if the quantity is sufficient, and continued small quantities drive them away. ' •