The second witness was a man from Auckland who said he was an ornithologist but did not belong to the Ornithological Society. His name was Harry Wilson. Wilson’s description had also been faultless, the report said. The interviews and the authentication had been carried out personally by Dr Holcroft, who had made a special flight to Rotorua because of the importance of the discovery.
Yet there was something about the report which was unusual. The independence of the second witness was vital in the sighting of rare birds. Harry Wilson? It was not a name known to him. He apparently had no New Zealand ornithological credentials, or the report did not mention them.
Had Kevin organised his attendance as a fellow consultant specially for the wildlife expedition to the Waitoa, or had he been a member of the party which had been staying at the Upper Waiwawa Hut? This party was said to be a group of adventure tourists from overseas. It was the same party which Forestry had asked to advise others that the Waitoa was closed. But none of this party had seen the huia.
He would talk to this bloke himself in the morning, just to assure himself that everything was all right. There was a phone number in the file. Perhaps his credentials were from overseas. Or should he ask Kevin Carr first? Then he remembered Kevin had gone on holiday. Why not go to the top and ask Gerald Holcroft? Damn Wellington! He would do it himself. In any case, it might only be his own half-baked idea.
He didn’t want any damn rumours about his sanctuary.
It was not till four o’clock on Monday morning when he was leaving the office that he remembered to call into the police station and to tell them about the doctor and his orderly tied up in Dick’s Land Rover on the Mamaku Hill.
“May I speak to Harry Wilson, please?”
A surprisingly efficient female voice answered. “May I ask who is calling, please?”
“Burton is the name, wildlife ranger at Rotorua.”
“May I ask in what connection, please?”
“It’s about the Waitoa Sanctuary. He was one of the people who discovered the huia, wasn’t he?”
“Yes,” she said, but the voice gave no trace of any emotion.
“Well, I just wanted to discuss something with him.”
“Just a moment, please.” There were sounds of a muffled conversation and the sound of a photo copier in the background. Was it an office or a home? “I’m sorry, Mr Burton, but Mr Wilson has strict instructions not to talk to anyone about the discovery.”
“Yes, I imagine the media have been a nuisance. Can you tell him that I’m the officer in charge of the sanctuary?”
“Our instructions are from Dr Gerald Holcroft, the Director-General of Forestry, whom I presume you know.”
There was a nasty twist in the last phrase. It deliberately ended a very unsatisfactory conversation.
“Dr Holcroft is not available. May he call you back?”
Gerald Holcroft was a bossy little man who had been a professor of some kind before he got the Forestry job. Dick thought at first that because he had never worked his way up through the Department, he wouldn’t really understand the people in the field.
The huia sanctuary appointment had changed all this, and there was now a cordial relationship between the two men.
Dr Holcroft was on the line. “Good morning, Dick, sorry to hear that you had a brush with the kidnappers. Is the vehicle all right?”
“Yes, being recovered this morning, sir.”
“It is believed that they are heading for the Waitoa sanctuary. Any idea why?”
“The kidnappers said the mental patient bloke discovered uranium.”
“It must be part of his sickness. Obviously they’re after the huia, just like those trampers who disappeared.”
“Do you think so, sir? As a matter of fact I’ve been doing a bit of paper work and I had a query about the second witness, Harry Wilson.”
The voice stiffened. “What about him?”
“Are his credentials from overseas?”
“Dick, I’m surprised at your question. Has someone put you up to this?”
The stubborn, suspicious streak was roused. “No, but I couldn’t find much information on the file. So I rang him up, but was told that you wouldn’t allow anyone to talk to him. The only thing I can do is ask you. Can you tell me whether he was a consultant invited by Kevin or a member of the overseas adventure tourist party at the Waiwawa Hut? If he was a member of the party, would you give me the name of the leader of this group from the hut book so I can follow it up?”
“Dick, I don’t understand what you’re getting at. Why do you want this information?”
“I want to make my own enquiries.”
“I understand you’ve been talking to the kidnappers. Are you questioning my integrity in accepting this witness?” The voice was icy.
His boss should have known that Dick Burton was not a man to be put down. “Sir, is it that you don’t have this information or is it that you’re refusing to give it to me?”
His chief ignored the question. “Listen to me, Burton. I am not continuing this conversation any further. I am putting you on notice that I am holding you personally responsible for allowing the kidnappers to go free knowing that they intended to enter the huia sanctuary. Moreover, if you continue to act outside my instructions as you did when you rang Harry Wilson I have no alternative but to dismiss you.”
“The little blokes’s off his rocker!” said Dick as his chief slammed down the phone on him.
Professor Gerald Holcroft’s appointment to the position of Director-General two months previously had created some ripples in the Department. Though at the time of his appointment he had held the chair in zoology at Victoria University and was a noted ornithologist, he had no Forestry background. Yet of his environmental interest there had been no doubt. While at Victoria he had been the driving force in establishing sanctuaries for various endangered birds such as kakapo, brown kiwi and black petrel. Moreover, he had shown himself adept in obtaining public and commercial backing for these initiatives.
In recent years Forestry policy makers had struggled over a mandate which included both protection of New Zealand’s unique biodiversity and a commitment to fostering recreation and allowing for tourism. Conservation management strategies sought to give guidance on the balance between the two aims. Dr Holcroft had made no secret of the fact that he was seeking greater protection for biodiversity, especially where rare and endangered birds were concerned. He saw that the demand for public access was sometimes incompatible with this protection.
“Look at Great Barrier Island,” he had said. “We know that the prime nesting place for the black petrel is on Mt. Hobson, so we build board walks everywhere to protect the burrows . Then the public use increases tenfold as a result. What happens to the black petrel?”
His detractors said that he was intent on locking up mountains and remote bush valleys for rare and endangered birds. He replied that if these birds became extinct, some of New Zealand’s most notable treasures would be lost forever.
The huia sanctuary was the jewel in his crown. In no other sanctuary was he more zealous for exclusion. As soon as the search party had set foot in the watershed of the Waitoa, he had strongly objected, and it was his influence which led to the eventual cancellation of the search.
This exclusion even included wildlife officers. His own ranger, Dick Burton, had no authority to enter except with his personal permission, and the National Recovery Plan was to include the same condition.