WHEN BUSH ABOUNDED

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 79, Issue 7102, 2 September 1949, Page 5

WHEN BUSH ABOUNDED

VARIETY OF BIRDS VETERAN RECALLS EARLIER DAYS The native bush of New Zealand is sorely pressed, and its bird population dwindles as civilisation takes the trCes they nest in and feed off, but both still have many friends. Last week, said the president of the Forest and Bird Protection Society, Mr A. P. Harper, the campaign instituted by the Society at the beginning of the year for school groups aimed at *the preservation of the native forest and its birds, reached a membership of 5000. To that number should be added about 6000 members of alpine, tramping, and other outdoor clubs, and also the 10,000 members of the Society, which includes 2000 more children. t

Mr Harper, who is the “ father ” of mountaineering in New Zealand, and who has explored many virgin areas in and on both sides of the Southern Alps, recalled the days when the South Island teemed with native birds. He can recall wekas on the outskirts of Christchurch, thick in the country districts. They were practically exterminated in Otago and Canterbury by poisoned grain set to abate the sparrow nuisance. The chief enemies of the birds, said the veteran bushman, were the weasel family, wild cats, rats, and opossums. In the old days most miners had a cat in their camp but the miners were apt to stampede, and if the cat. was away at the time it would be left to forage for itself, and went wild in the bush. Some of them were splendid creatures. He had followed the trail of a wild cat which pushed its way through snow across a pass 8000 feet high. Bird life was attacked by introduced vermin in various ways. The opossum was now killing the bush in Westland. Some vermin killed the birds, others the eggs. A kiwi hen could scarcely be happy about laying such a splendid egg and have an imported rat suck the contents from it while she tried to hatch it. But there was more danger than the mere killing of the birds and the destruction of eggs: the very presence of unusual enemies so upset birds that they became disinclined to mate, though in decreasing numbers. Referring to birds now extinct, Mr Harper said that he could recall being on one side of a torrential river in Westland from which all sjgn of bird life was absent. There were weasels about. On the other side birds of many varieties abounded. W/ithin a few years he returned to the spot. Both sides were now destitute of bird life. The weasels had found their way around. At another locality an explorer companion had had to tie his dog up at night, such was the slaughter it might have done among the many ground birds. Three years later imported pests had left but few specimens alive. Asked if he thought there was any possibility of a small type of moa being found in the fastnesses of South Westland, Mir Harper shook his head. However, his friend, Mr C. E. Douglas, had seen the now supposedly extinct roa kiwi about sixty years ago. There was a possibility of a few specimens still existing; indeed, Mr Harper said he would not be surprised if a keen bird student of the Society had identified individuals quite recently.