Mr D. A. McCurdy Retires

Forest and Bird, Issue 178, 1 November 1970, Page 13

Mr D. A. McCurdy Retires

MR D. A. McCURDY, 0.8. E., an evergreen 86-year-old, who has been secretary to the Society for 9 years from his appointment at the Executive meeting of 3 October 1961 has retired. Mr McCurdy had had a distinguished career in the Treasury, from which he had retired before joining the staff of the Society. During the First World War he organised the Army Postal Services, for which he was awarded the 0.8. E. In 1920 he went to Samoa for 3 years to organise the civil administration finances. He will be longest remembered as the man who organised the Society’s mammoth quartermillion signature petition to Parliament on Manapouri. The most notable aspect of this was that he fought so hard for a beautiful lake he had never seen. Devotion to a cause is rarely so true. In appreciation of his efforts the Society has invited Mr and Mrs McCurdy to go to Manapouri as the guests of the Society, not only to see the lake in all its beauty, but also to write up for history the story of a truly historical fight for a lake. Executive Secretary Appointed The Society has now appointed its first full-time executive officer in the capacity of executive secretary, Mr Lloyd Woods. An M.A. (Hons.) graduate of Otago University, Mr Woods was economist in the Department of Agriculture and secretary to several Royal Commissions before becoming secretary to New Zealand Breweries in 1951. Now retired, he is best known in sport, being chairman of amateur wrestling, an Olympic Games Association member, and a former athletics executive. He was general manager of the New

Zealand Olympic Games team of 1956 and has had official places at two Commonwealth and two Olympic Games. A grower of thousands of lilies at his Paraparaumu home, he is the author of the 14-acre landscape garden at the Russley Hotel in Christchurch. When he returned from the Second World War to live at Paekakariki, he was taught beekeeping by Captain E. V. Sanderson, the first secretary and founder of the Society.

Plea To Save Australia's Kangaroo

AUSTRALIA’S red kangaroo, the world’s largest living marsupial, is in danger of becoming a rarity because of organised hunting for pets’ food and a succession of droughts. A plea for its preservation, before it is too late, has come in the first film ever made of its life history. Entitled “Marloo the Red Kangaroo” (Marloo is a West Australian name for this kangaroo), the documentary, in colour, is part of a series of internationally acclaimed nature study films well-known wildlife photographer

Harold Pollock has made under the sponsorship of the Bank of New South Wales. The film reveals many little-known facets of the life and habits of this animal, which, like human beings, has a daily routine of living. The Society was associated with the screening of the film at its New Zealand premiere in Wellington in May. The film is available, through any branch of the Bank of New South Wales, for showing by schools and interested clubs and societies.