HUNTING THE HUIA.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 901, 22 August 1910, Page 2

HUNTING THE HUIA.

AN INTERESTING EXPEDITION. SEARCH FOR SPECIMENS. Tho Minister for Internal Affairs (the Hon. D. Buddo), has just made arrangements with Mr. Edgar Stead, of Christchurch, to make another attempt to obtain specimens of the huia bird. The idea of the expedition is to secure specimens and place them in the Little Barrier Bird Sanctuary, in order that the huia may not become extinct. Mr. Stead has agreed to undertake the task for the Government, and he proposes, to try his luck in the the Rangitikei district, his party comprising several Maoris who are familiar with the bush and the habits of native birds. Starting at Taihape, the party will work westward towards the Ruahino Ranges, where, it is believed, the huia is still to be found. The party will .probably remain in the bush for about three weeks, and if successful will on its return to Taihape send the birds on to Auckland by rail. The expedition is to leave Wellington to-morrow week. Previous attempts in tho above direction have been made in the autumn, but in the present instance it is hoped to find that the birds have been driven down from the backs of the ranges. If the present expedition is a failure, all hope of obtaining specimens will probably be abandoned by tbo Minister. In its report on the project, a southern paper says:—lt is sixteen or seventeen years since bird-lovers in New Zealand first realised that a great danger beset tho huia bird, and that it might be lost to the Dominion. Lord Onslow, when Governor of New Zealand, was the first person to take a practical step to secure legal protection for the bird. In 1892 he wrote a long and eloquent memorandum to Mr. John Ballance, who was then Premier, asking that the huia should be protected, and that live specimens, together with New Zealand's crows and thrushes, should be placed in sanctuary. Lord Onslow had a personal interest in the bird. In ancient days an incident connected with the wearing of the tailfeathers led a great tribe of Maoris to adopt the huia's name as a tribal designation. When Lord Onslow's son was bom in New Zealand, he was named after the Ngati-huia tribe—that is, the "children of the huia." At a great gathering of the tribe, when the Hon. Huia Onslow, in his infancy, was presented to the tribesmen, one of the leading men, in the picturesque language of the Maori race, demanded that the bird from which the tribe had taken its name should be protected. "There yonder," he said, pointing to the dark mountains in the distance, "is the snow-clad Ruahine Range, the home of our favourite bird. We ask you, 0 Governor, to restrain the white people from shooting it, so that when your son grows up he may see the beautiful bird that bears his name." The Premier fell in with the suggestion, and the huia, which was the first bird protected in New Zealand for its own sake, was gazetted under the Wild Birds' Protection Act. No attempt was made to place it in sanctuary, however, and the slaughter, although checked, has been continued until quite recently.