MR. REISCHEK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9066, 29 May 1888, Page 5

MR. REISCHEK.

This well-known naturalist, who has now been in New Zealand for several years, and has investigated its natural history at a cost of toil and suffering and privation such as no one but. a German, with an enthusiasm for science, would undergo, is now in Auckland, making preparations for his return to Europe. Mr. Roischek, however, we are glad to say, does not intend to bid New Zealand a final farewell, but cherishes the hope that when he has completed his business in Europe, he may be able to return to New Zealand as a permanent settler. Mr. Reischek has been over almost every part of the colony, and has dwelt alone for weeks and months in the recesses of our forests or on the uninhabited islands which lie off the coast. He has made several most valuable contributions, in papers read before the Auckland Institute, to our knowledge of the natural history of the colony. These are of especial interest, as having been derived from personal observations of the birds in their natural haunts. Mr. Reischek has also given us many specimens of his skill as a taxidermist, and so has performed an inestimable service, for many of the birds he has so naturally set up are fast disappearing even from the loneliest parts of the colony. It is Mr. Reischek's intention to return to Europe, and there to publish a book upon New Zealand in the English and the German languages. It will be a popular work, and will no doubt contribute to an extension of the knowledge about New Zealand throughout Europe. Mr. Reischek has a large natural history collection at Vienna, and will take to Europe everything necessary to illustrate lectures on New Zealand.which it is his intention to deliver. In this last trip Mr. Reischek has discovered several new species of birds, on the islands called the Snares and on Antipodes Island. But although Mr. Reischek has done good service to New Zealand, his residence here up to this t mo has simply exhausted his own resources. He made up a fine collection of birds, and showed them in Auckland some time since. His intention was to dispose of this collection by art union, to give him some funds to go to Europe with. But the tickets sold were quite insufficient, and we understand that it is the intention to return the money to those who have purchased tickets. The cases containing the collection are now at the establishment of Mr. Josiah Martin, photographer. Anyone purchasing will obtain birds set up in natural attitudes by one possessing scientific knowledge and practical skill, a combination to bo found nowhere else in the colony, and will be the means of enabling Mr. Reischek to carry out plans which must bo of great benefit to New Zealand. We may mention that Mr. Reischek has just spent some time inspecting some of the mines in the upper Thames district. He hopes to be able to make the characteristics of the ore known to the scientific mining experts in Bohemia, Hungary, and Styria, and may bo the moans of inducing some of them to como out to New Zealand to give us the benefit of their knowledge and skill in reducing refractory ores.