KAPITI ISLAND

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 263, 5 October 1936, Page 2

KAPITI ISLAND

BIRD LIFE. BEST YEAR FOR A DECADE. WELLINGTON, Oct. 3. The year ended March 31, 193 C, was the best Kapiti Island has experienced for ten years, states the Commissioner of Crown Lands (Mr H. W. C. Mackin-

tosh) in a report appended to the annual report of the Lands and Survey Department on scenery preservation tabled in the House of Representatives. “The almost continual rains which fell throughout the year wore ideal for the plant life of the island, and also relieved the caretaker, Mr A. S. Wilkinson, from anxiety over the everpresent danger of fire,” continues Mr Mackintosh. The wealth of flowers produced on almost every species of flowering plant was followed by a great abundance of berries, which provided the birds with plenty of food. The caretaker states that there was more bird food on tho reserve than he had ever seen there. There aro no grass areas of any extent lelt on Kapiti except in Taepiro, and that is now being rapidly covered over with manuka, ferns and shrubs of all kinds. Little trees planted in this place a few years ago are well-established, so that in tune there will be a good stand of white pine and rimu there. A very useful addition to the equipment on the island was the erection during the year of a telephone line to the neighbours at the north end. Rats are still in evidence, although hundreds of them have been destroyed. A skilled trapper has been engaged, and is doing good work among tho opossums and rats.