Southland supplied expedition dogs

Southland’s first samoyeds were landed on Native Island, in Paterson Inlet, Rakiura/ Stewart Island, at the end of the Borchgrevink Antarctic expedition in 1899.

Because of quarantine regulations, the dogs – huskies, collies and samoyeds – were to be put down but Arthur Traill got permission from local MP Joseph Ward to keep them on the island as a resource for future expeditions.

Nine were taken from there for Shackleton’s 1907 Nimrod Expedition.

They were Scamp, Rowsey, Dido, Possum, Queen, Bosun, Huka, Spot and Battle.

Ward maintained an interest in samoyeds and became the first registered breeder in New Zealand.

In 1987 the last huskies being used at Scott Base were retired. The dogs were being fed on seals which had become a protected species, and by then motorised transport was in general use.

Ducking out of the office

To improve communication with the Puysegur Point lighthouse the Government decided to instal a telephone line linking it with Tuatapere and the telephone network.

The exploratory work began in 1896 when a party led by Joseph Orchiston, Dunedin Inspector of Telegraphs, marked a route for the line.

It rained incessantly for 15 days, a weka stole the rifle bolt and, between squashing sandflies, Orchiston had time to muse over his decision to leave the party’s tent flies behind.

Unable to cross the flooded Wairaurahiri they spent days heading upriver to the stock bridge just below Lake Hauroko.

Orchiston, in better condition than the others, pushed ahead, following the sheep track up the Hump Ridge and taking only one hour and 40 minutes to drop the seven miles down to the coast following a well used cattle track.

He walked Bluecliffs Beach, swam the flooded Waikoau and Rowallan and found a leaky dinghy at the flooded Waiau Mouth.

He tore up his shirt to caulk the seams in the boat, rowed across in the dark, set off again up the beach and arrived shirtless at Orepuki at 3am – that’s 40 miles in a day and a night without food!

No office wallah, that man.

What could possibly go wrong?

Southland’s least sensible acclimatisation suggestion was a proposal in 1953 to introduce Grizzly bears, Black bears and Brown bears to Fiordland to make hunting more exciting.

Entirely lacking their essential food – roots, berries and small mammals – the hungry bears would have been eating trampers and school parties within days.

Hordes of bears would have descended on Milford Sound, solving the congestion problem and, yes indeed, making hunting more exciting.

In 1987 the last huskies being used at Scott Base were retired.