MAROONED.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 12214, 2 August 1910, Page 5

MAROONED.

m LIFE IN THE MACQUARRIE ISLANDS. PRIVATIONS OF THE OIL HUXTKKS Such is the title of a little story con cerning a desolate group of islands ir the equally desolate Southern Sens thai has been engaging a lot of public attery tion. The subjects of this popular soli •citation have been the members; of s party of penguin oil hunters and theii privations, at the Macquarrie Islands. This little-known Southland industry, which for years past lias been carried on without the general public being aware of its existence, is controlled by Mr Joseph Hutch, ex-M.P. It has its base of operations «t the remote bleak and southerly Macquarrie Islands, where the penguin swarms m thousands and Maxes fat upon the harvest of the sea. Anything that woxea fat is a "marked" object m these days of keen commerce and oil trusts, and so the poor penguin has been sought out m its rocky sanctuary and turned to commercial use. Penguin oil is said to possess certain advantages that make it a much-desired commodity, and well worth the cost which, m the ordinary course of events, it entails. On account of the distance from New Zealand of the Macquarrie and other groups of islands, seekers of the oil must necessarily spend months away from civilisation and put up with many discomforts and inconveniences. The men had been at the islands .some nine months without any renewal of the food supplies, the schooner Jessie Njccql, owing to heavy weather, havipg had to return to Port Chalmers to refit. The Government steamer Hinemoa was despatched to relieve the men on' the promise' of certain payments and ' passage money. The Hinemoa returned on Thursday afternoon. The tale told b.y the men of their privations, and experiences* was a lively one. The oldest of the party — a veteran sailor named Wm. McKibbin (who liaftf m 1883 suffered shipwreck m Mozambique Channel), and who had been cast away on that occasion 104 days — said that it was nothing to the Macquarrie Islands experience of four months without stores.; "We have never had a similar .experience," said the othof .•nine, "and it will be our-, lust." McKibbin was five months , on, the island before the Jessie Niccol brought down other members .of the party, and so had had close on t\yo .years' residence there. The provisions ran out at the end of March, excepting a few biscuits, and these did not see.. April out. i The principal diet since March has been sea elephant tongues and heart, and no less than 675 animals havetoeen killed for tucker alone. Some 690 of the sea elephants had been killed previously for oil, producing 725 casks, and so no less than 1365 were killed for the- .season.. There was also v, species of stringy weed known as Maori cabbage, . which had to be boiled three times and. then stewed m weka, oil.io make it eatable. Wekas were also eaten, and a few rabbits, also penguins, but these became too scarce. For miU^s the beach -\vas strewn, with the .carcases of the «ca elephants which had been killed for their hearts and tongues. Coal also ran out, and sis the weather wa"K .simply vile, their troubles can be readily imagined. : For weeks they never saw the sun, it rained all the summer, and the winter was almost as bad. . Their' clothes and boots wore out completely, and trousers had to be made from spare blankets, 'and boots from sea elephants' hides.