LORD HOWE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 5 August 1924, Page 6

LORD HOWE.

AX ISLAND OF PALMS. Decently Mr. A. Musgrave, entomologist at the Australian Museum, visited Lord Howe Island, and he brought back with him a. wealth of knowledge of this lonely little island of the Pacific, whose total population does not exceed a hundred souls. On his return he delivered a lecture on his investigations. As the result of Mr. Musgrave’s visit, much valuable material and information have been made available, and in hi s lectures Mr. Musgrave has dealt with what might be described as a. fascinating subject in a most educational and entertaining manner (says the Sydney Morning Herald). Lord Howe Island is situated 4‘20 miles north-east of Sydney, and lies about 300 miles east of Port Macquarie. A boat leaves Sydney for the Island every five weeks. The southern end of the island is mountainous, and the northern end hilly. Tl\e twin mountains Lidgbird and Gower, nearly 3000 feet high, dominate the whole island. These mountains first attracted the attention of Lieutenant Henry Lidgbird Ball, the discoverer of the island. He was commander of the naval tender “Supply, 1 ' and while carring the stores to the penal settlement at Norfolk Island, 480 miles further east, he chanced on this speck of land on February 17, 1788. 'The island is only about seven miles long, and with an average width of about a mile. The narrowest part is only 200 yards broad. The island contains about 3220 acres. It is of a crescent shape, and linking each end of the crescent is a coral reef. .Between the reef and the island is a lagoon, which is only about a fathom deep at high tide. The northerly limit of the island is the North Ridge, a series of rugged cliffs 600 to 700 feet in height, and in the crevices of which boatswain birds nest.

Lying off the north-easterly end of the islands are the Admiralty Islets, the home of millions of sea birds. Geologically the island consists of three high islands of basalt adjoined by coral sand rock. The Admiralty Islets. Mutton Bird Islet, Rabbit Islet, and Balks Pyramid are of volcanic origin. The largest of the three basalt islands is made up of the twin hills, North Hummock and Intermediate Hill, and the twin mountains Lidgbird and Gower. Of these Mount Gower is flat topped and attains a height of 2800 feet, and Lidgbird is 2500 ft.

On Mount Gower there is a flat area of 200 acres covered in a very dense vegetation of palms and tree ferns, “the whole conjuring up a. mental picture of the coal ages.” From s uch a great height the visitor obtains a, magnificent panoramic view of 'all the /islands, including Ball’a Pyramid, 18 miles away. The middle basalt island consists of Transit Hill, 400 feet in height, while the third island is represented by the North Ridge. Around the flanks and spurs of these islands is cleposite c ] a calcareous rock known as coral sand rock. Between Transit Hill and North Ridge at the south end of Ned’s Beach rises a flat topped hill known locally as Stephen’s Lookout, 200 feet in height. This hill is of great interest to geologists from the fact that it marks the highest point at which the coral sand rock has been found.

On the slopes of Mount Lidgbird and Mount Gower ; and in the Erskine Valley at an altitude of 700 feet, grows the largest epacrid in the world, the Fitzeraldi as the islanders call it. It is related to the charming flowering heaths with spiky foliage which grow about Sydney in the spring. They are small plants' for the most part, but the Lord Howe Island species grows to a height of 40 feet, and many have a trunk more than two feet in diameter.

One of the most interesting botanical novelties of the island is the banyan. These usually commence life as a parasite in the fork of some tree or in a log or stump. From the horizontal branches which spread out over the palms below are given off roots which grow down towards the ground. Eventually the roots enter the soil, while the part above the ground grows to form another colum-like support for the tree. The tree keeps on sending down these until it covers probably an acre or two of ground. Four distinct species of palm occur on the island, and these seem to be restricted for the most part to well defined areas due to the nature and elevation of the soil. Thus, on the coral sand rock the thatch palm, on the lower levels of the mountains, the basalt, the curly palm rears its graceful head until, at the 1806 ft. level, it is replaced by the big mountain’palm, and finally on the topmost summit of the mountains the dwarf mountain palm. The thatch palm and the curlv palm are the species upon which the livelihood of the islanders depends. All round the holdings on the island there may he seen clusters or groves of thatch palms, sometimes laden with seed. Occasionally on a tree unaffected by rats or wind may lie seen aeected hv rats or wind may be seen the flowers with the seeds, representing Ove successive years. The maturo seeds are hard, so. as a final test of ripeness, the islanders bite them.

Ihe collecting ol the palm seed and the carriage of it to the settlement or the boat, calls tor a great amount of endurance and labour. A man nuiv hare to climb about 40 trees in a day to get the quota o| seeds demanded of him. Most of the see ( | is sent to Sydney, where it is bought by local seedsmen, cither to he repacked and sent abroad, or else planfed, to be later sold in pots to adorn Sydney houses or. garde us. Ihe advent of rats seriously aflccted the whole seed industry. The rats had destroyed most ol the paim seed in the. hills, so that one year only bushels were collected on the little slope of .Mount. Gower, as compared will] 36!) bushels collected during the previous year. The failure of the seed

supply and the consequent reduction in revenue caused many o! the vounger men to come to Sydney for employment. As an experiment, the Lord Howe Island Board of Control s ent 40 cases of r.ced to London, where they realised over £8 per bushel, more than twjee the price the islanders had previously received.

As the result ol the introduction of owls, aided hv rat drives, the rats about the lowlands have been held in check and the hoard has now introduced insectivorous birds, and is experimenting with a. modren method of barium carbonate on well-prepared baits.