The Chatham Islands.

Thames Star, Volume LXV, Issue 19345, 28 February 1935, Page 3

The Chatham Islands.

SOME STRIKING CHANGES. DISAPPEARING FEATURES. SWANS, EELS AND KOPI TREES. Several striking changes occurring in the nautral features of the Chatham Islands were mentioned in an interview by the Bishop of Aotearoa, the Rt. Rev. F. A. Bennett, who has returned after spending a fortnight there making an episcopal visitation. For a week Bishop Bennett travelled over, the island, on

horse, covering 120 miles. Among the changes most noticeable were tho gradual disappearance of both black swans and eels, and the withering of the kopi trees. At one time the Chatham Islands were noted for the thousands of black swans that crowded its many lakes, especially Te Whanga, tho large inland sea of about 40,000 acres. A few years ago the Maoris were able to gather swans' eggs by the cart-load. Now the swans aro not nearly so numerous, though it is difficult to say why they are decreasing.

Certainly it is not because they are disturbed or shot. Possibly it it because the water-weeds and other foods on which they lived are dying out. Eels also were once very plentiful in Te Whanga and were caught in large quantities by the Maoris, Now the tuna, too, are disappearing, probably because they also lived upon the weed which has disappeared before the swans, or some blight. The kopi, or karaka, tree, is one of the predominating features of tho Chatham Island bush. It is upon the kopi that the peculiar carvings left by the old Moriori are to bo found. Bishop Bennett said that the withering of these trees from tho roots was very noticeable to him in many parts.

This, he said, was attributed by the Maoris to the disappearance of the undergrowth which formerly afforded shelter to the trees. Tho kopi when unprotected and exposed to the full blast of the Avind soon decayed.