5/28/13 Norwegian whale harvest | Stuff.co.nz
Norwegian whale harvest
ABOUT THE SOUTH WITH LLOYD ESLER Last updated 11:25 28/05/2013
In the years 1923 to 1933, a Norwegian company, Rosshavet or the Ross Sea Whaling Company, made nine expeditions to Antarctica.
The company's over-wintering and repair base was built at Price's Inlet in Paterson Inlet, Stewart Island.
In those years it processed 9122 whales, mostly blue whales, with several hundred fin whales and a few humpback and sperm whales.
The expedition had been many years in the planning with the capital raised in Norway by the veteran whaler Carl Anton Larsen. His company converted an old steamer into a factory ship, the Sir James Clark Ross.
The Norwegians had been granted a licence by the British government to whale in the Ross Sea and the fact that it had thoughtfully named its mother ship after the great British polar explorer, may have helped to oil the wheels.
Southland's first furs were seal furs. Over the years other animals have been killed for their fur in Southland - possum, ferret and rabbit. There was no fur-farming in Southland except in the rabbiting days, when rabbits were "farmed" by being allowed to breed in the summer months and harvested in the winter when they had better fur.
Seal fur has 70,000 hairs per square centimetre, second only in density to the sea otter.
Sixteen-year-old James Caddell was the lone survivor of a sealing party attacked on Stewart Island in 1810. He became a member of the local tribe, learned the Maori language and got tattooed.
Because of his experience in two cultures he was a useful intermediary between Maori and Pakeha in the south.
He was last seen in 1826.
Southland's first official land leases were the "Eastern Runs", large tracts of land made available for grazing after the purchase of the Murihiku Block in August, 1853.
Immigrant settlers from further north began to take up these runs on the east side of the Mataura River between Gore and the coast. The first of these was Frederick Mieville.
In December, 1853, he applied for two adjoining runs, Glenham and Oaklands. Glenham was between Kuriwao and Mokoreta Streams and Oaklands was downstream, between the Kuriwao and Titiroa Streams.
Invercargill's Queens Park had its origin as a 200 acre (80 hectare) tract of forest marked out by John T Thomson, north of the original town boundary.
Then called Victoria Park, it was officially gazetted as a reserve in 1869 and got its current name in 1897. www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/culture/in-the-south/8535690/Norwegian-whale-harvest 1/2 5/28/13 Norwegian whale harvest | Stuff.co.nz In 1882, then vested in the Invercargill Borough Council, it was leased out in 10 acre blocks for grazing, presumably having been cleared of bush by this time.
About The South Lloyd Esler 15 Mahuri Rd, Otatara, RD 9, Invercargill Phone-fax: 032130404 email: [email protected]
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