Signposts - a blog about Te Ara the Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Kiore (Pacific rat)

The price of rat

In Cambodia the price of rat is rising significantly. Per kilo, rat meat has risen 300% since last year. No surprises, food costs are rising everywhere. You’re probably more interested in the fact that people are eating – and paying for – rat meat.

Before Europeans arrived in New Zealand the Pacific rat, or kiore, was a food source and regarded as a delicacy in Māori society. The Settled Landscape theme, to be launched by Te Ara in November, has an entry on kiore, which includes a video clip showing the author, Bradford Haami, munching on the tasty kiore. Probably not for the squeamish.

‘The sweetest meat’

While Europeans didn’t, in general, see the kiore as such a delicacy, in Te Ara’s European exploration entry a nearly starving explorer-cum-goldminer, Alphonse Barrington, tells of throwing a rat on the proverbial barbie: ‘I never picked up a nugget of gold during the last ten years with more satisfaction than I picked him up, put him in the fire, and roasted him just he was, then cut him in three parts, which we pronounced the sweetest bit of meat we ever ate.’

While the kiore is unlikely to make it back to the menu in a hurry, no doubt it would take place of honour at the Hokitika Wild Food Festival.

High in protein

The kurī or Polynesian dog was also eaten, as noted previously in our ‘Dog Tucker’ post, and was a valued food source. (An entry on kurī is upcoming in the Settled Landscape theme too.)
Along with the kiore, it had been introduced by Māori ancestors into a place which boasted no native land mammals of any consequence, hence the value of both for protein.

Time to eat the dog

Seeking to re-introduce dog to the menu, Professor Brenda Vale has co-authored a book called Time to eat the dog. One of her ideas is that pets have a significant carbon footprint – a large dog having the equivalent carbon footprint of a small car. So, for the sake of managing climate change, you should either keep a pet that you can eat, like a pig or sheep, or be prepared to eat the pet you have, like a dog or cat.
Don’t panic, Spot and Tigger are probably safe for the moment. In all probability, Vale’s book is more a lesson from Catchy Book Titles 101. However, if you’re interested in the science surrounding carbon footprints have a look at Te Ara’s entry on Climate change or read about greenhouse gases in the Atmosphere entry.

It’s the end of New Zealand book month, so our quiz is all about literature and quotable quotes.

To view the quiz you need to have the latest version of Adobe Flash Player

James Hector in his younger days

Congratulations to Simon Nathan, geologist, former Theme Editor for Te Ara (Earth, Sea and Sky and The Bush), writer of our upcoming entry on the West Coast, and one of our regular bloggers.

Simon has just been announced as the recipient of the inaugural Copyright Licensing Ltd/New Zealand Society of Authors Stout Grant toward a biography of James Hector. Simon introduced us to über-influential and wide-ranging James Hector back in March, in his blog post to mark Hector Day.

Explorer, geologist and natural scientist James Hector founded several of the most important scientific institutions in New Zealand: the Colonial Museum (now Te Papa), the New Zealand Institute (now the Royal Society of New Zealand) and the Geological Survey (now GNS Science). Mountains, dolphins and beaked whales have been named after him.

It’s surprising a biography hasn’t yet been written about someone who has been so significant in New Zealand’s history (I’ve heard rumours this is because his handwriting was so appalling that no-one can decipher it), but Simon is now going to remedy this. He was been well-prepared by writing a biography of fellow-geologist Harold Wellman. All the very best for this mammoth task!

The Denniston incline – a West Coast icon

With New Zealand’s highest rainfall, the highest mountains, and glaciers extending down to near sea-level, the West Coast has the feel of frontier country, combined with spectacular scenery.

West Coasters have always had a reputation for being independent minded, and suspicious of authority and regulations. Gold mining, coal mining and forestry kept the economy going for many years, but nowadays tourism and farming are major employers. Farmers are belatedly realising that the West Coast’s drought-free qualities make it prime dairying country.

The West Coast features in Peter Hawes’s new play, The gods of warm beer , at Centrepoint theatre in Palmerston North. Two young rugby players are poached by league scouts, and suffer the humiliation of upsetting the whole community. It’s a wonderfully evocative play about life in Westport in 1951. Even if the audience probably didn’t understand some of the subtleties of West Coast life, they loved it.

The West Coast will be the next region to feature in Te Ara’s Places theme, and will be published in December 2008.

If you have photos of the West Coast, we’d love you to contribute them to our Te Ara group on Flickr. We’ll select around 20 images for an online exhibition, like the exhibition in our recent Southland entry. We’re particularly interested in things that are distinctive about the region. Visit our Flickr group for more details.

Lynley Dodd reading one of her books

There are lots of ways you can celebrate New Zealand Book Month.

You can attend one of the many events around the country, you can visit the New Zealand Book Month blogs on the official website, and you can read 30 reasons to love NZ books and writing on NZHistory.net and have a go at their book month quiz.

And you can tell us what your favourite New Zealand book is, and why!

To get the ball rolling: I think my favourite New Zealand book is Plumb by Maurice Gee. This novel had a big impact on me when I first read it, back in my second year at university. I’d been going through a bit of a religious crisis, and Plumb deals with a lot of similar issues, so resonated with me. It’s a skilfully written novel about important and deep stuff, but has characters that are very real and particular – not just puppets to make a point. Thinking about it now makes me want to go and re-read it (again).

Other favourite books are The Curative by Charlotte Randall, the Hairy Maclary books by Lynley Dodd, and more poetry than I can list, so I’ll just mention Catullus for Children by Anna Jackson.

Your turn…