TREASURE TROVE

Hokitika Guardian, 24 May 1932, Page 8

TREASURE TROVE

DISCOVERIES ON BEACHES

fascinating pastime.

WANGANUI, May 18

On the 'beaches of the world are washed up the flotsam and jetsam of the sea—wood, shells, fish, seaweed. Other things than legitimate seatrove are found, too, and in many countries pcpple make a regular business of searching the sea beaches for odds and ends.

Even little New Zealand has her beaches patrolled, mostly as a "labour j of Jove, .for the treasure trove is usualj. ly given to a nearby museum. The meu j who keep-an eye on a particular hit of ; beach are usually farmers or fishermen who live in th e locality. The fishermen, of course, are' often about the beaches, but many a farmer, whose property runs down to the sea, makes a special trip several times a week to see what the tides have brought. In this way some of the most important discoveries have been made. The general public, too, are often interested enough 'to report any unusual “find.” Early spring is a particularly good time for searching the beaches, most of the treasures coming ashore then. The 'locality which has, perhaps, yielded the most unusual results is the loir:-i stretch down the Taranaki-Wanganui j coast and the West Const of the South Island. Owing to the westerly drift of the tides, these localities have proved far superior to the east coast, both in number and variety of the specimens found. ! One of the most important natural history specimens found on any coast of Mew Zealand was obtained about six months ago on the Waverley beach. It was a specimen of the southern beaked whale—Mesoplodon grnyi—possibt'y the only perfect specimen in the world. These whales inhabit the southern seas and are never seen. This specimen is perfect to its tiniest joint, even the | flippers with five fingers are there. Very j few whales of any species on exhibit , show the fingers. The find also provid- j <?:1 lt?he very opportunity to tret r ' detailed description, as no specimen of this specie had before been sden in the flesh, lit is not a big whale, being only ( 17ft long, with a snout-like beak, snow | white in cofour, while the rest of it iquite black. It was fleshed on the 'beach, disjointed, and dragged piece •meal up a cliff face, and loaded on to a lorry—a long, disagreeable task. I

A killer whale was found a year or so ago at Kai Iwi, not many miles •from Wanganui. Within recent years four humped-back whales have been found between the Kai Iwi and Turakina rivers. Near the mouth of the Okehu stream, in the same locality, a very rare shark, the Porbeagle, was found. This specimen is recorded as having been found only twice before on a New Zealand beach. Sea lions used to be plentiful round the New Zealand coasts. One season ahon* 10 r years ago 15,000 skins were shipped away. Now they are very few, and only once during recent years has one been washed ashore on the Taranaki coast. Sea leopards from the Antarctic are very occasionally found. A few months ago two schoolboys found on the Kaitoke beach a little ■fish some inches long, and brilliant Rcnrlet in colour. It was i.der f'fi-.w a • a C'epola aotea, a very rare deep-water denizen. Further down the coast at Otaki some time ago a tuna, or tunny, ‘was washed ashore, one of the three or four ever found on New Zealand beaches, and a rare sei whale was recently found at Paremata. The very largest whale, and the only one of ;1•species washed ashore on -jui coasts was a b’ue whale, which came ashore nt Okerito beach, near the Sounds, and is now in the Canterbury Museum.

.Many inanimate objects wash ashore, some of them most surprising things. Two sixteenth century sundials, undoubtedly Dutch, were actually found on a Taranaki beach some years ago. 'Bottles with messages, some of which had .drifted long distances, and all kinds of wreckage ar e fairly <omin''o