NEW ZEALAND BIRDS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 December 1941, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND BIRDS

KEEN INTEREST OF WORLD SCIENTISTS.

I Distinguished scientists in Great : Britain and America have declared ■I that New Zealanders have a duty to the whole world in saving certain birds from extinction. Some good comment • on that subject was given by H. Barraclough Nell in the English maga- : zine “Nature.” “New Zealand has pro- • vided biological science with the clasi sical and most striking case of the ef- • fects upon a fauna of prolonged isolai tion,” he wrote. “For an immense per- ■ iod of time it has remained a sanc- ! . tuary for archaic types. The facts ■ about the kiwis, ground-parrots, wekas ' and other flightless birds are quoted in perhaps every zoological course in the universities of the world. Yet, these very animals so important ,to science are now in the gravest danger of becoming extinct like the giant eagles and mobs before them. The aid of zoologists in Britain and elsewhere is urgently needed to support the efforts I being made by New Zealand workers I to bring about reforms to save these animals, which, once lost, will never be known again. It is insufficient to have passed laws purporting to ‘protect’ them, when inadequate wild-life administration is available to enforce the laws. Active measures must be taken as soon as possible to destroy the complex of introduced pests which have ousted, or actually attacked, the defenceless native species. The problem is of the utmost importance, and we owe it to future generations, and especially to future biologists, not only in. New Zealand but also throughout the rest of the world, to solve it now.”