A DOLEFUL TALE FROM THE KERMADECS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1891, 1 May 1890, Page 2 (Supplement)

A DOLEFUL TALE FROM THE KERMADECS.

RETURN OF SOME SETTLERS. Auckland, April 28. The steamer Hincmoa arrived to-day, bringing back 13 of the settlers who left New Zealand a short time ago to take up their abode on Sunday Island. The returned settlers are: — Mr and Mrs J. Wells and family, Messrs M'Culloch, T. Jackson, A. H. Beckett, T Macnaught, J. Robson, E. Cotter, H. Carver, and T. R. Taylor. One of the settlers stated that Sunday Island is extremely rugged and mountainous. The flat at Denham Bay was of poor land, consisting for the greater part of sand and pumice, and it was impossible to cultivate the slopes of the mountains. Vegetables of all kinds suffered severely from the successive attacks of four or five different species of caterpillar, whilst in the beginning of January rats showed themselves and destroyed everything within reach. What had escaped the caterpillars was taken by the rats, who devoured unripe cobs of maize and the pods of peas and beans, and even burrowed in the ground to the kumeras and potatoes. A few patches of vegetables near the houses were saved, but the returns from them were unsatisfactory, and the maize cobs and potatoes were small. Beans and kumeras gave the best returns. There are on the island groves of bananas, which, however, are stunted. The climate seems very moist. The settlers say that had it not been for the timely arrival of the Hinemoa they would have been on short allowance before the winter was over.