General copyright and disclaimer - ResearchSpace@Auckland ...

Mantel Natur” (110), the Maori live in peace and harmony, and look as if they have been left
untainted by greed and laziness:
[S]ie sind fleissig und gastfreundlich und bauen Kumara, Kartoffeln, Melonen, Kürbisse, Kraut
und diverse Früchte. Auch haben sie Rinder, welche sich von wilden Grase und Karuka-Blättern
nähren, und sehr fett sind. Im Walde wimmelt es von verwilderten Schweinen; auch nähren sich
die Eingebornen von Vögeln und Fischen. Sie schlagen Feuer-Holz und graben Kauri-Harz,
welches ziemlich häufig ist und kaufen sich dafür Nahrung, Kleidung etc. 93
In general, thick bush and a plentiful array of birdlife, which contrasts in variety with those on the
mainland, dominate the landscape, except around cultivated areas and places used for firewood. 94
However, this picture of peaceful trade soon changed as the price of progress took its toll on the
surroundings. By March 1892 kauri logs were regularly being transported to Auckland sawmills
on Tenetahi’s personal ship after signing a lucrative agreement with the timber merchant, S.
Welton Browne, for the sale of the existing kauri on Little Barrier over the next five years in the
form of large-scale logging until an injunction was made by the Government before the end of the
year, whereupon Tenetahi temporarily took over the logging with the aid of European and Maori
workers. This resulted in a third of the bird habitat reportedly being destroyed within the space of
a few years (even though one of the primary motivations for the deal was to pay his outstanding
legal fees), which only provided further incentive for the Government to buy the island sooner,
rather than later. 95
The Hauturu reserve proposal was not just an isolated case of conservation on Reischek’s
part. He made a number of attempts to capture live specimens of New Zealand’s rare and unique
avifauna, many of which were destined for Little Barrier. 96 However, his numerous efforts in bird
conservation, it seems, failed. Reischek made his intentions of bringing live kiwi and kakapo, if
possible, back to Vienna early on in a letter dated 20 July 1877, in which he comments on the live
male kiwi he had acquired from Hokitika. 97 On 18 October he again reports his hope at bringing
home the two live kakapo he had captured, as they were only about a year old. He also mentions
Caesar had come back with two further live specimens of half-grown weka. 98 During his time in
Christchurch he had further live kakapo placed in the large cages of the acclimatisation society
93
Ibid., 82.
94
Interestingly, there is a kauri tree on the southern side of Little Barrier with Reischek’s carved initials, the year
1882, and “what appear to be Masonic symbols” carved on it (Cometti, Little Barrier Island, 18).
95
Marr et al., Crown Laws, 274f., 313f.; Cometti, Little Barrier Island, 130.
96
See 199, 217, 270f., 273.
97
Andreas Reischek, “Ein gefangener Kiwi (Apteryx Owenii, Gould)”, in: MOVW 1:10 (1877): 71.
98
Andreas Reischek “Kakapos oder Nachtpapageien (Strigops habroptilus) in der Gefangenschaft”, in: MOVW 2:1
(1878): 11.
244