CRUSOE LAND.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 207, 29 February 1912, Page 6

CRUSOE LAND.

[ LIFE ON CAMPBELL ISLAND. ; EXPLOITING THE WHALE IN THE FAR SOUTH. '_ " & Nine of the members of the Campbell Island syndicate returned to the Bluff on Saturday from Campbell Island by the auxiliary schooner Hurunui, the remaining member of the party being left on the island to attend the sheep, of which there are between six and seven thousand. Mr. Allan Thomson, who is a member of the syndicate, said that its members were ten young men belonging to Picton. They had acquired an interest in the I sheep on the island, which had been leased from the Government by the Hon. Captain Tucker, MJJC., for a terra of j twenty years, seven years of which had | still to run, and it has an area of 45,000/ acres. The sheep are mostly of the* Lincoln-Merino cross and do fairly well on the island, although, owing to the cold, the mortality, especially after shearing and among the lambs, is very heavy. The Hurunui brought back with her 108 bales of wool—the season's clip —and this will be shipped to London. This is the third year that the party have been on the island, the main atj traction being the whales that abound in these waters. Since last April they captained eight whales, and several others were lost, and they did not have a single accident. Their whaling equipment is a launch and a whaleboat. The first year they caught thirteen whales : and last year ten, but three were on tie small side. The whales this year were' very large, the bone being 7ft sin in length. The syndicate confines its attention entirely to "right" whales, the commercial value of which lies in their teeth, which are known as whalebone and are used for various purposes, including ladies' corsets. There are 434 of these teeth in the upper jaw of a right whale, and they are worth from £9OO to £ISOO per ton. Four good whales will supply a ton of this bone, otherwise teeth. It is only in "right" whales that bone of this description is found, other species having ivory molars, and it is strange that the lower jaw has no teeth whatever. Messrs Jaggar and Cook, who have the whaler I-lananui 11., also exploit these waters, .and they have built works on the island for trying out the oil, -sperm whales being tlieir objective.