Band rotunda honours fallen bandsmen
The band rotunda in Queens Park was built by funds donated when the Dominion Band wound up about 1920.
The purpose was to provide a memorial to the bandsmen who had died in the Great War. The inscription around the base says: “To the memory of the bandsmen who fell in the Great War AD 1914 – 1918. Erected by the Citizens of Invercargill with the assistance of the Dominion Band 1928.”
The roof was added in 1953 in time for the royal visit. The former band rotunda outside the post office in what is now approximately Wachner Pl, was demolished in November 1936.
A freezing stoat
Southland’s most unlikely stoat was discovered living in a freezer in Milford Sound in 1981.
John Begg says: “We had a walk-in
freezer at Milford Sound which was run for about 12 hours each day, where we kept several boats’ bait. We noticed that the bait was getting eaten, so one day we emptied the freezer out and found a stoat. The stoat was very much alive and had doubled in size due to its fur growing so much to enable it to live in the freezer.”
Girl Guides
Southland’s first Girl Guide Company was set up at Southland Girls’ High School in 1922 by the headmistress Anna Drennan, who had been a Guide leader in Scotland. The company was officially registered on May 23, 1923. At first they had no uniform but as the Guide movement became more organised, they got some useful kit, including a belt marked in inches for measuring stuff, and a wide-brimmed hat which served as an umbrella in the rain, a sunshade in the summer, a vessel for carrying water to extinguish a fire and a fan with which to revive a fainting patient.
Finding food
Castaways and sealers were compelled to sample new food items when their provisions ran out.
Here is a report from ‘An Old Identity’ writing in the Cromwell Argus July 3 1877. He is sampling paua and the heart of the mamaku or Black treefern in Dagg Sound.
“We were detained here nearly a week by contrary winds. I was here introduced to that Maori luxury the Pauoa [sic], or muttonfish, although why so called I cannot imagine except from its dissimilarity. An old boot-top boiled would be tender in comparison to it. Nevertheless, we had to eat them, together with a sort of sea-snail called toritori (possibly the Sea tulip). These, diversified with a little baked mummuck, formed our fare during the stay here. The mummuck is a species of ferntree, and often grows to a height of 25 or 30 feet, and sometimes from 20 to 24 inches through. It has a hairy bark, something like an imitation sealskin. The heart is soft like turnip, and when thoroughly cooked resembles baked apples. The fronds, which grow to the size of a man's arm, are very good eating, and considered a great luxury by the Maoris [sic].”