MUTTON-BIRDERS’ COMPLAINT.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3243, 13 June 1911, Page 2

MUTTON-BIRDERS’ COMPLAINT.

RAIDS ON THEIR. FOOD DEPOTS

, A returning party of mutton-birders complain bitterly of the fact that their food depots on some of the islands had been raided during the off season, telegraps the Bluff correspondent of the “Dunedin Star.” These depots are used as camps during the mutton bird season, but at its conclusion are generously left provisioned and unbarred so that castaways or others obliged to seek refuge there could do so, the owners trusting to the honesty of persons so situated to leave their property as they find it, utilising only what is absolutely essential. A party from the Neck (Stewart Island), who annually exercise their mutton bird rights on the Breaksea Group, suffered severely in this connection. Arriving at their destination they found that their depot had been visited and a 561 b bag of salt, a tin of kerosene, a mattress, and several articles of clothing stolen. Boxes were found scattered about, and garments pulled down and thrown on the floor. To be deprived of salt in the mutton bird season was disastrous, and so was the loss of kerosene, but the case, was made ever so much worse by the wanton behavior of the persons responsible. The Neck party have taken precautions so that the depot will not be molested in future. Other camps had also been visited and articles and stores stolen or destroyed. The mutton birders feel the position keenly.