SLAUGHTERING THE KEA.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 209, 5 September 1927, Page 6

SLAUGHTERING THE KEA.

The council of the N'ew Zealand Shipowners' and Farmers' Federation is requesting the Government to destroy the kea, or alpine parrot, on the Government reserves in the South Island. This is a Urge order, considering the nature of those reserves, which include the Aorangi and Arthur's Pass and Mount Rolleston National Parks and other enormous mountain areas along the Southern Alps. It is also a pretty cool request, in a double, senee. - The sheep-killing propensities of some members of the kea tribe are no. doubt a considerable annoyance to flock* owners on the Canterbury and Otago side of the ilpine range. But it is still quite an open question whether the kea is responsible for as much lamage as the sheepmen set down to his discredit. The bird is already outlawed by the settler, and he public is, moreover, called upon to pay five (hillings a head, and in some countries more to .he eheep-mn people for slaughtering him. This, me would imagine, is quite enough to protect lie flocks without calling upon the Government :o exterminate the bird in the mountains where >heep are not depastured. •

An unfortunate habit of the sheep fanner ii both islands is his readiness to run to the Government for help against (he natural enemies that once upon a time he had to dispose of without State aid. If an old bush boar raida his lamb paddock by night, straightway he must raise a loud wail about it to the Minister of Agriculture, instead of getting out his gun and carrying the war into the enemy's lair. In the case of the kea-hater, the lack of the old selfreliant ways is still more marked. -

The time has just about come, moreover, when the case in defence of the kea should be presented by those interested in the preservation of our native birds. The kea, in his native haunts of rock and ice, is a sociable, amusing creature, the very reverse of the picture of a ruthless ruffian drawn by the sheep-farmers. Xo mountaineer, no alpine guide, could be persuaded to kill the bird that comes hopping across the glacier after one, more inquisitive than even the weka, screeching, "Kay-ah, kay-ah!" , I have seen the kea as tame, as devoid of fear, as any penguin on its native beaches. I have also heard the fearsome tales of the backcountry sheep men, and have seen rows of executed keae, caught red-beaked, nailed upon the stockyard fences as horrible warnings to the parrot clan. The kea is no doubt a shocking example of a good bird gone wrong. The sheepfarmer led him into temptation, and he did <U" <rt on the baa-lambs and pluck and eat. Bi .lere is such a thing as carrying punishment too far. And in any event, it is up to the flockowners to look after their own property. The kea, so far from being a curse in the high country, is an attractive item in the snowy landscape, where one is only too pleased to see any living thing. And, whatever sheep-farming Governments may do, the Rob Roy of the Southern Alps is likely to linger there quite as long as the golden eagle has lingered in the Highlands of Scotland, where, after centuriee of nearer settlement than our mountains are likely to see, it still holds its lofty eyrie. —TANGIWAL