OVER THREE HUNDRED

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 51, 18 November 1946, Page 5

OVER THREE HUNDRED

MAORIS AT WHALE ISLAND

MUTTON BIRD SEASON OPENS

Since Friday last the Port Whakatane has been busy transporting Maoris to Whale Island for the annual mutton bird season, which though always short (limited to a single day as a rule) never fails to attract a large and growing number of Natives from this district.

Well over three hundred are now on the island and though the weather over the weekend has been far from ideal, all are determined to make the best of the outing which is regarded more in the light of a community excursion than as an actual foodhunt. Mutton birds are not so numerous this year, partially on account of the fire which swept the island in the early new year and partly on account of the adverse weather conditions which have ruled throughout the spring.

The actual ‘hunt’ did not commence until yesterday when all who had paid their share of the communal cost had been mustered on the island. The foreshore of Sulphur Bay is now a mass of tents and very temporary whares. Despite the acknowledged shortage of birds the Maoris are reported all to be in excellent spirits. The bird described as a mutton bird on Whale Island is not actually a true species of that type, though it resembles it closely. It is the Oe (Ow-ee) which has extensive breeding grounds on most of the islands in the Bay of Plenty and along the coast line of the mainland.