Contents

COVER : Pioneer missionary naturalist Rev Richard Taylor described the tuatara as having a “fine benevolent eye”. Certainly, once seen, it is hard to forget this remarkable reptile, which has survived virtually unchanged for millions of years.
CONTENTS - Features :
THE MAGICAL MOTH [up, up and away with a gaggle of Tiger Moth aircraft as their pilots retrace an historic flight from North Cape to Bluff];
SEUFFERT & SON [The exemplary inlaid furniture made by two little-known Auckland cabinet-makers around the turn of the century is being hailed as the finest in Australasia];
HARPER PASS BY HORSEBACK [Three adventurers relive the first European crossing of the Southern Alps - a journey whose dangers and hardships have not decreased since it was first made in 1857];
TUATARA : A SURVIVOR FROM THE DINOSAUR AGE [Little changed in more than 50 million years of evolution, the tuatara, New Zealand’s most famous ‘living fossil’ remains a puzzle to science and a worry to conservationists, who fear that its days may be numbered];
SAY CHEESE [until recently, processed cheese and Cheddar were virtually the only cheese products made in New Zealand. Now, with the rise of the boutique cheese-makers, a dazzling array of traditional and locally invented cheese types is being produced];
FLOWER OF HADES [Deep in the forests of the Central Plateau lives a plant parasite that does weird and wonderful things to the roots of trees. Unfortunately, its tasty flowers appear to have made it a prime food target of the possum, and the ‘Daccy’ is now in danger];
CONTENTS - Departments :
LETTERS; GEONEWS [the giant gecko - myth or monster?; Spirula, the curious ram’s horn shell; New Zealand flatworm devastates Northern Ireland earthworm population; native trees threatened by global warming]; PLACE NAMES [how the country came by its names]; WEATHER [analysis of a southeast gale]; SPACE [augmenting the eye]; BOOKS [recently published books on kiwi, mangrove and edible native plants]; COMING UP [what you can expect next issue];