Museum Notebook: Big bird farming in Whanganui 17 Jan, 2021 04:00 PM 4 minutes to read Made of white ostrich feathers and a white-painted wood frame with a silver embossed decoration, around 1910. Photo / Whanganui Regional Museum Collection ref: 1948.12.7 Made of white ostrich feathers and a white-painted wood frame with a silver embossed decoration, around 1910. Photo / Whanganui Regional Museum Collection ref: 1948.12.7 Whanganui Chronicle By: Libby Sharpe Alexander Allison farmed at Letham, about 11 kilometres south of Whanganui. His dairy operation was not paying, so he bought a pair of ostriches from South Africa to start a new enterprise. The birds arrived in Whanganui in 1904. The Letham ostriches were not farmed for meat or eggs, but to produce ostrich feathers for fashionable hats, cloaks and dresses.