THE KERMADECS. Trip of the Government Steamer Stella.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 218, 3 September 1887, Page 4

THE KERMADECS.

Trip of the Government Steamer Stella.

The formal annexation of the Kermadec Islands is an accomplished fact. Messrs Percy Smith, Assistant Surveyor-General, and T. F. Cheeseman, Curator of the Auckland Museum, have returned to town, lowing lett the (Stella at Kaipara. The steamer reached Sunday Island on the 15th, and remained there till the 23rd. During the whole of that time, Messrs Cheeseman and Smith wme engaged in the exploration and survey of the island s while Captain Fairchild took a series of soundings, with a view to the preparation of achait. An easterly wind was pre\ ailing, and the Stella had to shift her position several times for the benefit of shelter. The area of Sunday Islands is about 4,000 acves, and it rises to a height of 1,600 feet. It is wooded over the whole surface, with the exception of the ground around the extinct crater. The soil irf very rich, and -will grow all kinds of tropical plants. The native forest consists almost solely of a species of pohutukawa, ami there is enough of that timber to keep the shipbuilding trade of New Zealand going lor many years. The isliand is wholly of a volcanic formation. There is one very large and perfect, but extinct^ crater, part of which is iilled with a fresh water lake, and the second small lake is a crater which was in eruption in 1872, at which time the former inhabitants were driven away through fear oi losing their lives. The only inhabitants of the island at the present time are a settler, named Bell, his wife, and children, four of whom have been home since he took possession, about eight years ago. Mr Bell shipped lifty bales of wool by the Stella, and also grows fiuit of all kinds, sugar cane, and produce of various sorts, which is bartered to the whalers. Fiah are very plentiful, and on the island are such birds as the tui, paroquets, hawks, larks, blight birds, pukeko, and grey duck, while in the season mutton birds are secured by thousands. Wild goats abound and Mr Bell has 300 sheep. The ceremony of annexing the giotip was performed at Sunday Island on the 17ch August, the New Zealand flag being hoisted and the proclamation of the Governor being read. Mr Hazard ,Avho accompanied the party, took a photograph of the scene. After leaving Sunday Island on the 23rd, the Stella visited Macaulay Island, which is about 500 acres in extent, Curtis's Island, which is like White Island, and volcanic, and L* Jjjsperance or French Rock. The steamer then left for New Zealand, and had a strong south-east gale to the North Cape. Mr Cheeseman has brought back with him about 115 kinds of flowering plants and ferns which lie found at Sunday Island, and at least three-fourths of these are species found in New Zealand. The vegetation, he says, is closely allied to that found in this colony. The island is wholly covered with forest. The common karaka, tupaki (or tutu), warangi, pisonia, and many other New Zealand trees are p'entiful on the island. There is a kind of palm, closely allied to our nikau, but much larger ana more handsome in its foliage, which is abundant everywhere. Ferns are very plentiful, and form a fourth of the entire flora. In addition to kinds known in New Zealand, some eight or nine varieties were noticed. There are several kinds of grasses, most of which, however, are different from those of New Zealand, and allied to Australian and Polynesian forms. Among the tropical plants found on the island is the well-known candle-nut of Polynesia, which forms a tree fifty or sixty feet high with a trunk almost three feet in diameter. It has very handsome foliage* and the kernel of the nut is so full of oil that it would burn on simply applying a match to it.

A correspondent writes, in reference to the Hikutaia find, regretting that the experimental plant at the Thames is nob now in operation, and pointing out the enormous benefit that would accrue to the community if this plant were now available ; for as matteis are now, even if it were possible to got down a ton of ore from Hikutaia in small parcels on pack-horses, there is no means of treating even this quantity; The only plan at present would be to ship a few tons to San Francisco. If anything approaching the result of these various trials were produced, we can imagine the benefit it would bo to the Thames district in its present collapsed condition. A very strong effort should be made to get a quantity treated. There is no doubt that if the ore is as rich as supposed* it could be readily treated in the furnaces already in existence at the Thames, and this plant may yet prove of very yteH service to the whole district.