TOWN AND COUNTRY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19847, 23 May 1927, Page 3

TOWN AND COUNTRY

ITEMS OF INTEREST Maori Legend. The following is one of the Maori ilegendg (says the bulletin of the Native 1 Bird Protection Society) relating to the reason why the name riyoriro, which means ‘ ‘ gone away,’ ’ was given to the grey warbler. “Hatupatu lived at Horohoro, Rotorua district. He was carried off to the forest by an ogress, but managed to escape one day when she was in the forest spearing birds. These birds she speared by means of transfixing them on her long finger nails. On her return from the forest, a small bird informed her of Hatupatu’s escape by calling out ‘Riro! Riro! Rirol’ which means absent —gone away.’ Hence that bird has since been known as the Riroriro.” Unusual Visitors. A New Plymouth resident who was on the beach at the back of Paritutu Sugarloaf a few days ago, saw several objects lying on the sand, remarks the Taranaki News. On close approach the objects commenced to move, and, becoming alarmed, clumsily waddled off into the water. They proved to be seals. There were four of them, about five feet in length, with brown coats relieved with white under the neck and chest. For more than an hour the seals disported in the water close in shore, and then made off in the direction of the submerged rocks lying a mile or so off the shore. In the early days seals were common around the Sugarloaf islands near Moturoa, but the creatures were so severely hunted that they forsook the haunt, and are now but rarely seen in these waters.