8 MUTTON BIRDS 



the exception of a small portion about Half 

 Moon Bay, this beautiful island is also worthless 

 for material purposes. Its rainfall is great, 

 and its peats and sands impossible to till 

 or grass. As to the islets and island groups: 

 most of them still remain the property of 

 the nation, but it is property terribly neg- 

 lected and grossly mismanaged. Are the 

 pitiful rents got for Campbell Island and 

 Enderby Island so necessary to our Treasury 

 that they can weigh against the spoliation by 

 stock of the island vegetation? Is it common 

 sense, is it business to destroy property of poten- 

 tial value for the immediate gain of a few 

 pounds, a few shillings, nay, a few pence a year? 

 Even taking into consideration the handling of 

 the clip, so little is gained in income by the 

 Colony, so little by the ship-owners who carry 

 the few score bales of wool, so little by the 

 merchants who handle the stuff, and finally so 

 little by the tenants themselves, that the leasing 

 of these islands can be compared only to Esau's 

 sale of his birthright for a mess of potage, and 

 the attempt to farm them pronounced a failure. 

 The fact is, of course, that the question of 

 monetary return has been no inducement to the 

 State. The idea has been to assist the private 

 enterprise of individuals in risky and even 

 dangerous ventures; and as a back-country 

 settler myself, I, at any rate, can have no 

 quarrel with that motive. These leases have, 

 however, been granted without due considera- 

 tion, and, as before stated, sometimes at least 

 without even attaining their primary object 

 the benefit of the tenant. If then no benefit 

 accrues to the settler, and a valuable national 



