HOKITIKA NOTES

Grey River Argus, 20 July 1926, Page 7

HOKITIKA NOTES

(Our Own Correspondent). The destruction of native birds by stoats and weasels was demonstrated in the vicinity of Cascade River, South Westland, a few days ago, when a mob of cattle ’was being driven along the track. A Maori hen, fleeing for its life, rushed in among the herd, followed closely by a huge stoat. The bird managed to make its escape into th? bush on the opposite side of the track, as the stoat, evidently taking irigat at the drovers, abandoned the attack and retreated back into the bush. A little further along the track, the drovers came across two dead Maori hens, freshly killed, each with a hole bored in the throat, the work probably of the same stoat. The Cascade is a wild piece of virgin country, and it is rarely visited by anyone, with the excej'tio" of cattlemen, who go there once o' twice, a year to muster cattle. Ten or fifteen years ago countless numbers of Maori hens roamed the bush at the Cascade. So plentiful were they that it is said the squeals of them day and night were deafening; but to-day just an odd one is to be seen, and it is con sidered that within a year or two the Maori hen will be a thing of the past in that territory, their destruction being entirely due to the imported stoat and weasel. Pigeons and kakas arc still fairly plentiful in the far south, but the ground birds arc rapidly disappearing. The Maori hens that were liberated on Open Bay Island, which lies three miles off the coast, have done well and are now very numerous, due to the fact that the weasel or the stoat cannot approach it. A recent visitor to Open Bay Island reports the birds to be very poor in condition, due to their numbers and the limited food supply. It is understood that the sawmillers who have been dumping sawdust into the Hokitika River have received notice from the Fisheries Department that the practice must cease at once. Mr J. Shaw left yesterday for Wellington to attend the funeral of his mother, who died at Wellington on Sunday.