UNEXPLORED NEW ZEALAND

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 471, 2 July 1948, Page 6

UNEXPLORED NEW ZEALAND

HEN it was announced recently that an expedition organised by Colonel J. K. Howard, an American, would go into "tinexplored" country in the Otago Sounds at the end of this year, some surprise may have been expressed at the existence at this time of day of any unexplored territory in New Zealand. The main secrets of New Zealand geography were laid bare quite early, which is to be expected in a country no part of which is more than 60 miles from the sea. The main features of the North Island were known before Hobson arrived in 1840. The line of the Southern Alps could be seen by pioneers of Canterbury. Julius von Haast was mapping the Mt. Cook region in 1862. In the early ’fifties the first white man had looked upon Wakatipu. It may be said that in the last 80 or 90 years there have been no spectacular discoveries. This and the unobtrusive nature of much of the early penetration, plus the very lay-out of these long narrow islands of ours, account for the fact that the story of our internal exploration has not recéived the public attention it deserves. Remember the Surveyors For the records of Brunner and von Haast, not to mention earlier men, show how much hard adventure was often involved in penetrating the unknown,

Since then generation after generation of explorers and surveyors, helped by back run-holders and alpinists, have gradually built up the New Zealand map that we know. The engineer and the surveyor have been among the basic map-makers of New Zealand. They have mastered their job in a particularly difficult country, amid high mountains and satanic gorges, heavy forest and rushing rivers. These men have lived for months at a time in isolated camps, and spent their days in labour that only the fittest could endure. There were times in the North Island (to say ‘nothing of the Wairau affair); when there was added the tisk of Maori violence. The result is an almost complete map of New Zealand, at any rate in the main essentials, The exceptions are few. If you look at a large-scale map issued by the Lands and Survey Department in the ’thirties, you will see in the country of the Otago Sounds a number of white patches, extending from south of Milford Sound down to Dusky Sound, and in to Lake Monowai.. Some of these are marked "unexplored." Before the: coming of the aeroplane, with its camera eye, that would have been literally true. Now, it is more accurate to say "unmapped." For the aeroplane has flown over these patches, and it is pretty certain they contain no geographical surprises. What has to be done is to fill in the details. The Howard expedition will tackle only a small portion of this great area

of fiord, mountain, and forest. It will go into Caswell Sound and explore the territory between that and George Sound. Its primary object will be to see what is happening to wapiti and red deer, but officers of the Lands and Survey Department will accompany it, and the scientific world will have representatives too. Is there a possibility that they may find fresh specimens of the notornis? Some years ago it was reported that the tracks of this bird had been seen. The land between these two sounds is not marked "unexplored," but not far away are two white patches on the map. And over much of the Sounds country it is impossible to draw a sharp line between "unexplored" and "explored." The Lands and Survey Department will be well aware that much work has still to be done on country that appears already covered, on the map. Savage Grandeur And what country it is! For reasons of geography as well as strategy, we should use large-scale maps when we study countries. When New Zealanders see or hear the word "sounds" they think almost exclusively of Milford, for the simple reason that Milford is magnificent in scenery and the only place regularly visited by holiday-makers. But Milford Sound is only one of many. It is the most northerly, and from there right down to Foveaux Strait, stretches a line of fiords. One needs a large-scale map to appreciate their number, length

and ramifications. There is an admirable description of these Sounds in the South Island volume of James Cowan’s Travel in New Zealand. The west coast south of Milford for a hundred miles is deeply indented with -fiords cut like vast trenches far into the heart of the mauntains and the forests: Several of these fiords are far longer than Milford, and in'some parts almost equal it in the amazing dimensions of the precipices, the canyon-like character of the sea-arms. Lofty and steep-to mountains surround all the Sounds, and the eH-encompassing forest comes down to the cloear, deep waters. Waterfalls of great height flash through the bush, and wooded islands lie on the calm inner waters or make an ocean-barrier of shelter for the Sound mouths. Of the wild tumbled character of this country, so savage as well as so grand, Cowan wrote 22 years ago, in words hardly less applicable ‘to-day: If one were asked to point to the section of these islands lying the most lonely .and mystery-steeped, there could be little hesi\tation in indicating that area of the great southern Fiordland. country which lies between the western cliffs of Lake Te Anau and the West Coast Sounds. ... All to the west in an enormously broken land, of implacably savage contour, a land of densely matted forests, ancient beyond all reckoning, jagged with peaks and ranges, craggily hostile, a forést and mountain land bluedotted with lakes, white-threaded with torrential rivers, a-roar with waterfalls of unsurveyed height; and above all’ a: land of utter soltitude. In all this vast Sounds region, from Milford down to the southern side of Dusky Sound, there is but one permanent home of man-at the head of Milford. Even to-day, there are shore lines in the western arms of Te Anau that are

not properly defined, and survey work is now being done there. For there is a project for using the waters of Te Anau to gefierate power in the Sounds. The Howard party will go to the Sounds in summer, but it will be rough going. To the ruggedness of the country are added plagues ef mosquitoes and sandflies, but it, may be that recently discovered preventives now make this curse of the Sounds country less annoying. And the rain! Milford has an average rainfall of 253 inches. One year it was 316 inches. Scientific Investigation In an explanation of the scientific purposes of the Sounds venture, Dr. R. A. Falla, Director of the Dominion Museum, says that to most New Zealanders an expedition to study the habits of the wapiti in its new environment might seem to be of little or no interest. Since deer of many kinds have become a potential menace, the first reaction will tend to be that they call for no further study than is needed to control or exterminate them. But the study of any animal in new environment may have important results, and the study of wild mammals has, understandably enough, been a neglected field in New Zealand where about 90 per cent. of graduates in zoology work on inveftebrate animals. The opportunity of working with a trained mammalogist will be welcomed by New Zealand scientists who will take part in the expedition. There are a number of other reasons for scientific interest in the venture. The block of country concerned lies mainly at an altitude of about 4,000 feet, is difficult of access, and has not been explored in detail. Geologists should welcome an opportunity of filling in details. Further work by botanists will be necessary not only for its own sake but as an essential part of the study of the

Wapiti, including the effect of its feeding habits on vegetation. No general zoological collecting has ever been done there; doubtless new insects and other invertebrates are waiting to be discovered. Nothing exactly is known of the surviving native birds, and the extent to which they are resisting the spread of predatory enemies, such as the stoat. The kakapo is reported to exist there. "Fiordland is a national park of which we are justly proud on account of its scenery. Our pride would be more justified if we knew a little more of its other resources, and it is for this reason that the expedition proposed is not orily to be sponsored by the Government but also organised and directed by departmental field officers and New Zealand scientists." The survey of Te Anau’s shore is a reminder that much remains to be done to our coastal surveys to bring them up to date. The charts for the Sounds are actually

based on surveys carried out by H.M.S. Acheron about a hundred years ago. Much of the general coastal charting is also based on old surveys. Some stretches have been brought up to date, and but for the two wars the work of revision might have been finished before this. It is now planned to have the job completed by a naval survey ship. There are no other areas of which so little is known in detail, but there are

some about which the Lands and Survey Department would particularly like to have more information. Two of these are in the North Island-a block about the Kaimanawa Mountains, south-east of Taupo, and part of the Urewera Country. In the South Island there is an area of high country in the northwest corner, between the Cobb and Heaphy rivers. There is another terri-

tory which takes in part of Amuri and Murchison counties-the region of the Spenser Mountains and the country running up to Lakes Rotoroa and Rotoiti. There are general maps of all these districts, but there is a lot of detail to be filled in. Also, the mapping of Stewart Island is not complete. Hills are Useful The system of surveying in New Zealand was founded by able men on sound lines. The whole country was divided into some 25 areas, which are linked up with each other. The mountainous nature of New Zealand, which imposes at times so many rigours on the work of surveyors, helps the profession, for it is easy to set up trig stations. And now aerial photography has provided a new instrument of the utmost importance. It enables landscape to be mapped quickly and in-close detail over large areas. Aerial photography is now ‘the basis of topographical maps. Nearly all the North Island has been so mapped and a good ‘deal of the South. For high country it is necessary to go up to 26,000 feet to take photographs. The combination of a plenitude of hills and this new photography enables New Zealand to produce results that are the envy and admiration of surveyors in countries that have big areas of flat land. So the work of mapping goes. on. Diversity of surveying depends on diversity of economic production. In other words, the more that land is used, the more it can be mapped in detail. How much work can be done depends on the money and the staff available, and it may be many years before the white patches in the Sounds country are mapped in detail. First things must come first,

Staff

Reporter