BIG CAME FOR NEW ZEALAND.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume LIII, Issue 2814, 20 October 1903, Page 2

BIG CAME FOR NEW ZEALAND.

Perhaps one of the most amusing "scares," created in the House this pesson, has been caus?d by the an.

nouncement that the Tourist Department intend importing big game into the Colony. Mr Flatman asked the Government if they intended to make New Zealand the dumping ground for wild and dangerous beasts for the sake of a few tourists. Mr Flatman took it for granted that the Government were importing animals that would render the country a dangerous one ; but the buffalo was the most terrible of the proposed importations. Our claimate alone saves us from having beasts of prey " dumped " upon us, and it was quite premature on Mr Flatmnn's part to suppose that the Government meant to import animals that were an actual menace to life.

What the Tourist Department actually propose to do is to rear animals suitable for sport, so that more tourists might be drawn to visit the Colony. New Zealand is very free from native game, and this want was to be supplied by importations from other countries. Buffalo, deer, etc, were to bo reared in special reserves, and this big game, it was thought, would render the Colony a more popular tourist resort, and certainly, there is need of some preservation of game here. We miss the large landed estates in England, where rich men carefully breed game for sporting purposes, and it quite naturally devolves upon the Government to take up the matter The comparative scarcity of cultivated bush land and the smallness of the private holdings render the chanca of rearing game in New Zealand a very small one.

In the Waikato and Wairarnpa red deer have flourished and settlers complain that these animals are a great. It has been reported that the Land Department has been prevailed upon to keep Government land in the McKenzie country as a sanctuary for red deer, at which all runholders in the neighbourhood have been much perturbed.

We cannot for a moment think the Tourist Department intend importing any dangerous big game into the Colony; but the question is whether whether New Zealand is ready to harbour large reserves, set aside for purposes of sport. Importation of most kinds of game must mean, not only the locking up of a good deal of land, but also a yearly loss to most farmers in the neighbourhood through inroads from the animals in question, The sport afforded would undoubtedly draw many tourists; but it is doubtful whether that would counteract the losses sustained. New Zealand is just beginning to realize that it is time to prevent her native birds from dying right out, and the preservation of these has not come any too soon; but is our Colony rich

enough to afford such luxuries as big game reserves ?

Upholders of the scheme argue that the increase in the tourist traffic alone would amply repay such a speculation as this ; but that is a very debatable point. Our Colony, even when the reserves were teeming with big game, could only be a very poor imitation of such a paradice for sportsmen as Africa is. There the tourist meets his game on their natural ground and in their proper setting, However, none can deny that up to a certain point this tourist legislation would do a great deal of good. In very barren stretches of our lofty mountains deer, buffalo, etc., would thrive and bring a larger return than the ordinary domestic animal. The measures proposed were strongly objected to and the importation of any big game has been deferred for some time ; but it appears to us that the proposed action of the Tourist Department was not such a wild or miscalculated one as the opposers of the scheme contended.