OUR WELLINGTON LETTER.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVLI, Issue 10, 6 September 1911, Page 4

OUR WELLINGTON LETTER.

WELLINGTON, September 2. Affairs Political. 1R JOSEPH WARD'S return has been celebrated in AJy Parliament by the usual congratulations and recriminations but hard words from his envoi it s do not seem to worry the lh ime Minister overmuch. He looks well ami in good fighting trim, and his speeches are brisk and lively, as of old. He lias had to reply once more to the charges about the Coronation invitations, of which everyone is heartily sick and find. These petty matters have wasted a good deal of time this session, but time is no object to the gentlemen of the Opposition. It is not likely that anything particularly useful will be done during the remainder of the session: members are only too anxious to get away to their constituencies. Another two months will be worried through somehow by Parliament: then for the ♦ lections. Sir John Findlay’s declaration of his intention to resign from the Upper House and contest a seat in the House of Representatives is warmly commended on all hands. The Attorney-General is a very different man to-day to what he was a lew years ago, when he was rejected by a Wellington constituency, and he will not have a great deal of difficulty in < Idairting his heart’s desire—if only a suitable district be chosen, and there are several offering. His choice is not yet announced, but. seats all over the Dominion arc mentioned, from the Bay of Islands to Parnell, and Wellington Suburbs to Dunedin West. Sir John Findlay is not the most popular man with the great body of the electors, but this is simply because they do not know him. He is the cleverest man in the Ministry at this moment, and I confidently predict that, before very long he will succeed Sir Joseph Ward as Prime Minister. He is the Mr. Asquith of the New 7 Zealand political world: the brains behind the throne. the House oi Representatives was considerably amused on Thursday night over Mr. I. I\. Sidey and his Mean 'Lime Bill, the Bill which was merrily stonewalled out of e\interne. That is its usual fate: and as Mr. Sidey has brought it forward now for three or four sessions one imagines he must feel rather dubious about, ever introducing it again, even if his constituents give him the chance. About the funniest feature of the debate was Dr. Te Rangihiroa’s comparison of Mr. Sidey with his daylight saving measure to Maui Tikitiki-o-Taranga. the ancient Polynesian hero who set out to delay the progress of the Sun-god across the heavens. The comparison ended with the setting <mt, however, for Maui the Sun••ompieror '■succeeded in his endeavours, while Mr. Sidey failed. The House was considerably tickled by the notion of likening the mild, even ladylike, Mr. Sidey to the Maori Prometheus and Hercules. The Parliamentary Library. Mr t'harles Wilson, Parliamentary Libi,irian, very properly pointed out to Parliament this week the impropriety of allowing recess privilege-holders to take out so mneh fiction from the General Ai Hcmbly Library. The Library Committee has shown its approval of Mr Wil-s-on’s point of view by deciding that no fiction be iss'.ieti to privilege-holders. Koine people, according to the Librarian, take out nothing but novels from the PailLnix ntary Library, and fifteen to tventx per cent of the whole of the volumes issued are fiction. One cannot 1 ut strongly agree with the Hon. George 1 owlds when h(» dt’.laies that it is not; a function of Parliament to provide fi - t.on for the people of Wellington, and so compete with the Munieip i| Public Libran; hut that the Parliamentary Library should be developed into a great national library, containing alt books and pamphbts p abbs bed iu and relating to New Ze.Hand. 'I here is niidmibledly a great alulae of the Library, not only by 'those who get the re<x-ss privileges, but by members of Parliament themselves. Some nre ♦ \<-ceding!v careless in their treat uient of \alaaMe books: leave them lying about in hotels and even trains, and tru-t ■ " Pi . them i■ "i-.'d to the I.il iary. No doubt tin? best cure

for the complaints on the score of the rush for fiction would be to discontinue buying novels for the Library. Members of Parliament can do without fiction very well, and so one doesn’t see why it should be provided for them at the taxpayers’ expense. A Parliamentary Lib rary is an absolute necessity if members ar e to keep, themselves abreast of the times, but the average modern novel is not necessary; if M.P.’s. want it they should go out and buy it. The library privileges are very highly appreciated by many Wellington people, such as journalists, who value the aveess thus gained to books of reference, and who are able to consult the latest works in science, biography, travel, and so forth. Mere novel-readers should be severely barred, they can get novels from the City Library, on payment of a small subscription, and that ought to content them. But they want their reading for nothing. Whales and WRalemen. The laws and customs of whaling on the New Zealand coast have 'been investigated at great length and in interesting fashion ever at Pieton this week. John Keenan, head of one of the Tory Channel whaling parties, claimed from James Jackson, another old whaler, the sum of £lOO, value of a humpback whale, killed in the Channel. One of the witnesses called as a whaling expert, was John Love, a half-caste sheep-farmer, who said he had lived' on the shores of Queen Charlotte Sound for sixty years, and had been whaling for forty years, starting with his father, Dan Love, one Cf the earliest pakehas in these parts. Other veterans gave evidence, too. The

question in dispute was whether a whaleboat crew were entitled to a whale if their lino parted after they “made fast,’’ and the whale got away and was claimed by another crew. The incident in Tory Channel, out of which the lawsuit arose, seems to have been an exciting bit of work. They chase whales in oil-launches as well as in whaleboats now, over in Tory Channel, and they use bomb-guns as well as harpoons and lances. “Whale oh! - ’ was the yell raised at the look-out station near Te Awaiti, and off set the whaling crews—Keenan’s, Jackson’s, ami Pereno’s. Two humpback whales were in sight. Keenan's crewgot up close to one of them, and the headsman (Keenan) put a bomb from his gun into it, and then threw the harpoon and made. fast. The line attached to the iron was about twentylive fathoms in length, at the end of which was attached a “drogue,” or “drag,” as it is familiarly called, which stops the progress of the dying whale. Whilst still in pursuit, Jackson’s party came in between Keenan’s boat and the whale, harpooned the big sea-creature, and' claimed possession. For the plaintiff Keenan it was claimed that the custom which had prevailed in Tory Channel waters from time immemorial was that “first iron holds the. whale,.” There were two rules known among whaling men, said counsel for Keenan on the opening day of the case. One was the “fast and loose rule” and the other “the iron holds the whale,” the latter being the one adopted in Tory Channel. The veteran, John Love, gave an interesting account of whale law, as practised in the Sounds ever since the days of the real old-timers in the whaling business. Joe Baker, Isaacs, Phil Himes, Billy Keenan, Jimmy Keenan, Dan Love, ami the Jacksons. When he commenced whaling the custom was the same as it is now', anil that is when one got fast to a whale, and the line parted, he claimed the whale because of the rope anil " iron ” attached. Supposing the iron came away from the fish, there would be no claim; the whale was free to an' one. If the rope was intentionally cut away by any of the crew the whale was reckonto be abandoned, but if it was accidentally cut it would stilt be claimed. If the line gave out, it was the old custom to put a drag on , and the man that owned the line could claim the whale. He gave an instance of the old davs, in which W. Keenan got fast to a whale, mid it took all the line out. Witness got up to the whale, asked Keenan s permission, fastened on and got half the value. At that time ho was with lackson’s party. He asked |>ermission been use Keenan had his rope and harpoon attached to the whale. This was over twenty years ago.

So the Pieton Council House has been redolent of whale-lore and harpoons and humpbacks for a week or so. The S.M.’s judgment had not been delivered at the time quoting, but as eaeh party announces its intention of taking the ease to the Supreme Court if it loses in the Magistrate's Court, we shall probably hear a good deal more about it, and someone will have to go back to Te Awaiti singing the doleful old chanty=— “ For we didn't get that whale, bravo boys, We didn't get that wha a ale!” About Some Maori Names. One can hardly imagine any drier reading than the “ Schedules of Applications for Confirmation of Alienations,” of native land, published in the “ New Zealand Gazette.” But there is interesting stuff in everything, if you only knew how to look at it. For instance, the lists of Maori names in these schedules. How would they read if they were English, after the fashion adopted with Red Indian names in America? Just translate a few from a eouple of pages in the “Gazette,” published this week: —- “Old Man, Sky-Streaked-with-the-Hays-of-Dawn” wants to lease part of the Haututu block to John Davis. “ Long-Pull Stand-like-a-Tree ” is another applicant for leave to transfer some of his ancestral acres. “ FlaxCloak ” also has some surplus land to lease. “ Tommy-Without-a-Sweetheart” is transferring a section at Orahori to one Robert Young. “Heart of River-Girl” and “ Cut-up-Alive ” are two Maori ladies’ names, rather suggestive of cannibalism.

Some of the combinations of Maori and pakeha names emphasise the eomraonplaeeness of the latter, as, for instance: “Lift-up-the-Sky Brown” —no comma between Sky and Brown, please. Mr. “ Stand-Naked ” is surely a Maori of tlie Maoris. “Zacharaiah Hot-Water” ’ parents evidently were under missionary influence when they got him baptised. “The Sound of Many Birds ” (Tangi-manu-hau) is about as poetical a family name as one could wish to own, but the gentleman to whom he is leasing his share of the Ohura blocks is not nearly so romantically called, for his name is Doherty. Old “ Dogskin Mat ” is getting rid of some of his Rangitoto-Tuhua lands to a pakeha by the name of Otto. “ Dying-in-the-Morning,” and “Ward-it-Off” are similarly ridding themselves of their patrimony, and so are “The Spread-out-Sky” and “The Tui-Bird’s Tail.” Decidedly, there’s a good deal in a name —a Maori name at any rate. Preservation of Native Fauna anil Flora. The report on scenery preservation just submitted to Parliament by the Lands Department contains some interesting bits of information about beauty spots and native trees and birds. The most noteworthy item is Mr. E. Phillip Turner’s report on his work as inspector and surveyor of scenic reserves. Mr. Turner is the right man for the position, an enthusiast for forest-preservation, and for the protection of our vanishing native bird-life. During the past year he did a great deal of field-work on the Upper Wanganui ami In the King Country. In his Wanganui River surveying he cut out three scenic reserves near the

famous “Drop-Scene” (Aratira), above Pipiriki. Of this place he says: “This is without exception the roughest country I have surveyed in New Zealand; the bush is light, but it is one tangled mass of supplejacks, lawyers, and other vines. On nearly every line I eut out, a rope had to be used to scale the cliffs. In one line of fifteen chains there was a rise of ever 1000 feet. Field-work in this locality is therefore difficult and slow.”

Regarding native bird life, Mr. Phil-lips-Turner writes: “While eamped at Waimarino I was pleased to find that the bell-bird (korimako, or, on the Wanganui, kokomako) is now very plentiful there. It was absent from there (and from the Wanganui also) for some years, but is now again plentiful. This bird far surpasses in the beauty and variety of its notes any bird I have heard. At daybreak at Pipiriki the chorus sung by bellbirds. tuis, native canaries, sky larks, blackbirds, ami thrushes in praise to the great Author of Life and Day (who car* say to the contrary?) is music that should compensate a tired and sleepy tourist for the bed he may have reluctantly loft. At Waimarino also I saw a few robins, and hoard occasionally the mournful hut sweet note of the kokuko. The robins were so tame that they would

pick for insects under the tripod of Uie theodolite whilst I was observing; I even had to be careiul that I did not tread ou them. A bird of so unsuspicious a agture is not likely to last long. I found the canary as far north as Marakona. As all shooting and killing of birds on scenic reserves are statutory offences, it must be strongly impressed upon birdcollectors and hunters that they aj u liable to heavy punishment if they take birds from our reserves. It may be mentioned that Maoris are in the habit of ornamenting baskets and mats, which they sell to tourists and the publie, with the feathers of kiwis, tuis, and kakas. Such a practice leads to the wholesale destruction of such birds, and must b» strongly deprecated.” Du the cliffs of the Wanganui River, near its junction with the gorgy Mangum, Mr. Turner had the good luck to find a plant that is new to the botanical world, and which is one of the most interesting finds made of recent years in New Zealand. The plant grows only on damp, shady, precipitous cliffs, and belongs to the genus Senecio; it is rather a handsome plant with large bright-green cordate leaves about Ift. long, and is quite unlike any other Senecio. It is confined to a very small locality, and probably there are not more than a hundred plants in existence. "It will be another fact,” says the surveyor, “to support de Vries theory of mutants.” “We have treasures in our scenic reserves,” concludes Mr. Phillips-Turner, “which in years to come will be thought priceless by our successors. If it is largely our scenery 'that makes this Dominion one of the most delightful countries in the world, surely it is worth our while to make strenuous attempts to pre-

serve what nature has so lavishly supplied. As Rooseveldt lately stated, no nation with purely utilitarian ideals ever reached real greatness in its highest sense. Our unimaginative settler who protests against the reservation of a very small percentage (and that generally poor land) of the country for scenic and like purposes would be astonished at the stupidity of the Londoner, Berliner, and Parisian for not cutting up into allotments the beautiful parks of their cities.”