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In a moving tribute to all victims of ragwort poisoning, a hiking group forms the traditional dead horse tableau in a field of ragwort.
Winton Disease was a nasty and generally fatal liver ailment of stock, especially horses, first reported in New Zealand from the Winton area in the 1880s.
Its cause was a mystery for many years but was eventually diagnosed as simple ragwort poisoning.
Its spread and severity coincided with the spread of ragwort but weed control limited its damage.
The Otago Witness of 12.2.1891 said: “l saw an extract from a Southland paper attributing the mortality of stock at Makarewa to the prevalence of ragwort, yellow weed or tansy. By what I can learn it is the same at the famous Winton Disease. Some two years ago we had experts from Wellington and Dunedin inquiring into it, but at that time they pooh-poohed the idea that the tansy had anything to do with it, although the greater part of the settlers here were convinced that the weed was the principal cause of all the trouble. I suppose it would scarcely do for a gentleman with M.R.V.C. attached to his name to take a tip from a common settler. I am glad they see their mistake.”
One of Southland’s most successful examples of control of pest plants may be the Ragwort flea beetle on ragwort, first released in 1985 near Colac Bay where it has established.
It has since been widely dispersed. The beetle has been very effective at reducing ragwort densities in some places.
Tales of kiwi and kakapo
One of the enduring Rakiura tales concerns the kakapo and kiwi (also called tokoeka) which are believed by some to have been recent European introductions.
There is a story that a vessel transporting some of each species had to take shelter in Port Pegasus and the birds, originating in Fiordland, were released there to save them from a watery fate if the vessel foundered.
The lack of fossil and midden remains should indicate that neither bird was present on the island until the founding generation found itself ashore and set about building a local population.
Genetic analysis, however, shows that both species have been isolated there since the end of the Ice Age when the rising sea formed Foveaux Strait, so the Pegasus birds were added to an existing population.
It is odd though, that the kakapo was so scarce on Rakiura when it was common enough to be a reliable and vital source of food for Fiordland explorers.
The kiwi, however, was not popular at the dinner table.
One explorer said it was like eating pork that had been boiled in a used coffin.