THE SEAL TRADE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2849, 21 October 1908, Page 13

THE SEAL TRADE.

The announcement that the Government j purposee' opening the seal season has (says our Bluff correspondent) given rise to a good deal of speculation. The Macquarie Island plant has been closed down for some time past, but etepe are now being taken "j for re6uming operations. The island resources are equally divided as between penguins on the one side and sea elephants on the other. The latter hold possession of the more inaccessible parts, and the result is that in recent days the penguin trade is that which ie chiefly prosecuted. The elephant rookeries have been left alone, and consequent thereon a rich harvest is to be reaped. It takes a good deal of nerve to prosecute the work, and that faofc should be carefully weighed before attempting it. Macquarie is only one pf the group of isla.nds on which the oil trade has been recently worked. The next beat for the catch is the -western eide of the Auoklands. There the shore rises, bold and precipitous, sheer up to the 500 or 600 f'-ofc level. Whereas Macquarie ie the horn« of th«* i»iophant. the Aucklands *rt the home of the sea lion. The former i-s understood to be the more valuable, but the general impression is that there ie no real difference between the two. The Bounties are also considered exceptionally valuable in seal life, but a want of freeh water di6oounte that value. Besides those named there arc the Snares. Campbells, and Antipodes, ail more or less suitable for sealing pursuits. Speculative enterprise has been going beyond New Zealand waters. Do-"--' • '•• ' •" - '■■" ' • oeedinply high, latitude, en route to Cape Horn, haa been mentioned as being sealabounding. In relation to New Zealand its advantages are, that it ie within a few hours' sai! of the direct Homeward-bound route round Cane Horn. New Zealand franca could he dumped down on tihe island without incurring much exoense, and the nroduoe of t.heir labours picked up for the Home markets at, similarly chean rates. Whether the scheme works out practically remains to bo rpoii. The island i< five or six miles in length .and barely that in Kreadrn. Th-e Poufh Pacific Director? dPFcrilves it as one of the met iso'atfd bpo** in th,e ocean, beinc in the mo«.t open part of the great world of waters. Ita ropnrtpd di c covery dates ha-clc to the year 1841. but it was only recently its actual exi-tpnee was verified. Rf»rv>llant as the comlit'om may seem, it is bnt riprbt to a-dfl thai ihae ar<* Ihe exnet conditions under whirh seal life flourishes. !

Failnv/> of rhe trokl deposits of th* once fiour'^hinpr Klondyko town. Conper Centra. ha« caused a genera* exodus of the inhabitant?, not a single buildiner, of which there are 2000. bein? occupied. When the English mail left it was ettt'eSd that King Peter of Servia would probably nay a visit to England next summer. Hi<t Maie^ty was so convinced of the security of his position that he arranged a tour of various capitals, including St. Petersburg and Paris. King Peter's advisers, have been in communication with British officials, *nd these advances have not been uneenerously received: " ;