When surveyors laid out the Manawatu town of Palmerston North, they were a little optimistic.
An 1878 [see left] and later 1895 survey map shows sections in the suburbs of Terrace End and low-lying Hokowhitu running right up to – and in some cases beyond – the banks of the meandering Manawatu River. However, the multitude of lagoons in the district showed that the Manawatu River must have flooded, and changed its course, many times throughout the centuries, leaving these “cut-off meander” lagoons as evidence. (more…)
May 13, 2012
When did the moa become extinct?
Posted by envirohistorynz under commentary | Tags: extinction, H. C. Field, Kiwitea, Manawatu, Maori, moa, moa bones |[2] Comments
The question it raises is, were moa still roaming the densely forested hinterlands of the North Island even as Europeans were first arriving on these shores?
But let the discoverer of those bones tell the story. In a letter to the Feilding Star in July 1908, Mr Thomas A. Bryce, a farmer from Kiwitea (see: Kimbolton and surrounds – “putting the small man on the land”), wrote:
“What time has elapsed since the moa became extinct? (more…)
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