The Editors

Letters To The Editors

Yachts Can Aid Expedition

Sir,—To mark the 25th anniversary of its existence, the Ornithological Society of New Zealand is sending a sizeable party to the Kermadec Islands during the coming summer to study the fauna and flora of the group.

The expedition is to be wholly sponsored by the Society, although through the kind offices of the NZ Minister of Defence, Mr. Dean Eyre, it is to receive a considerable measure of naval co-operation.

The survey ship, HMS Lachlan, is to transport the twelve members of the expedition and their equipment to Raoul Island on November 19, and return them to New Zealand on Jan uary 27, 1965.

The primary object of the expedi tion is to study the birds of the Ker madecs, so that the party will include up to nine of the Dominion’s well known professional and field orni thologists; but other branches of natural science will be covered by the inclusion of a professional botanist, and an entomologist. A medical officer will complete the party.

It is very many years since any reports on the bird life of these islands were made, and even then they were not exhaustive, and related mainly to Raoul and the Meier Islands nearby.

So far as is known, only brief landings have been made by ornitho logists on outlying islands such as Macauley and Curtis, and none has ever spent a night ashore on them.

The group is famous in the bird world for the number and variety of its nesting petrels, and as these come ashore at or after dark to their nest ing burrows, complete study of the birds is only possible at night.

Some PIM readers will be well aware of the scarcity, or complete ab sence, of anchorages in the Kerma decs, and this fact will prevent the expedition from having a stand-by craft suitable for inter-island work, and will restrict them to Raoul and the Meier Islands, which can be covered by dinghy and outboard.

It is the earnest hope of the expe dition that someone may be cruising in those waters while the expedition is in the group, and may be able to

er invaluable assistance by tak a small party to one or more of outlying islands. ime of these are completely un ified by man, and their fauna and almost a closed book. Therefore such assistance would without it result in an important contri m to scientific knowledge.— s, etc.

A. Blackburn,

President Ornithological Society ew Zealand.

Drne, NZ.

Dential Qualifications In

Cook Islands Elections

, —ln an article written by a tonga correspondent in the July of PIM about the new political which has been formed in the Islands, it is stated that . . . “an ance ruling that candidates (for egislative Assembly) are eligible if they have lived in the Cook is for three years will have to aended”. ur correspondent is relating this e fact that should Mr. Albert / decide to contest the Legis- Asssembly elections scheduled jxt year, local legislation setting he residential qualifications for lates will require amendment. • the purpose of the record, I 1 like to advise that there is no 'ocal ordinance in existence. ; qualifications for electors and lates are contained in the Cook s Legislative Assembly Regula -1958 which are a New Zealand nent, and which provide for ntial qualifications of three is and one year respectively, regulations are still in force in ook Islands. ir correspondent has no doubt ied the issue with the debate took place in the Legislative ibly last year when the Con m Report prepared by Profes dkman and Davidson and Mr.

Wright was under discussion, authors had recommended that □alifications for both electors :andidates should remain un l, but the members of the bly thought otherwise, and ;d that the residential period be extended to 12 months in ise of electors and to three for candidates, amendment was conveyed as a mendation to the New Zealand ament from the elected re latives of the Cook Islands , and as such it has been in in legislation which is to be ired later this year. »re the legislation can be

brought into force it must be debated, and finally passed, both in the New Zealand House of Representatives and in the Legislative Assembly of the Cook Islands.

I feel that this matter is of sufficient importance to require immediate clarification.—Yours, etc.

L. J. Davis,

Assistant Secretary Department of Island Territories, Wellington.

P S. : Congratulations to PIM on its airmail policy. It is a much more satisfactory arrangement.

• See also stories, p. 11 and p. 53.

Long Spear Throw

Sir, —Your article in the July issue on the Tahitian legend of the great spear-thrower Pai-tua-tini was very interesting. However, I believe there must be some kind of a misunder standing over the statement that “he hurled the spear across from Tahiti iti”. According to the late Sir Peter Buck in his Vikings of the Sunrise.

Tahiti-iti and Moorea are two names for the same island, Tahiti-iti being the legendary name in the Tahitian myth of the creation of the islands. —Yours, etc.

G. Sund.

Edward Street, North Sydney, NSW.