OUR LATEST PEST.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 77, 1 April 1930, Page 6

OUR LATEST PEST.

Tho discussion which took place at Taumarunui last Saturday evening on the subject of the deer pest should help to open the eyes of the general public and the Government to the reality and the magnitude of this new danger, to our natural resources. The statements . made by the farmers and setflers present fully bore out the alarming descriptions of the destruction and depredation for which deer have been responsible elsewhere in the Dominion. We have frequently protested against the apathy of the authorities in regard to these dangerous pests, and it is high time for energetic action -to save the country from further disastrous and irreparable losses through their ravages. One farmer near Taumarunui has given up ploughing for turnips because "he could not afford to grow turnips for deer." Another settler declares that the very existence of farming in the Taumarunui district is at stake, and demands that the deer menace shall be fought as ruthlessly as the blackberry or the rabbit. According to reliable authorities there arc considerably more deer in New Zealand than there are human beings, and "the man on the and," from one end of the Dominion to the other, is prepared to produce startling evidence of the damage that they are inflicting upon root crops and grazing land, and also upon our rapidly decaying native bush. No excuse or apology is needed by the farmers and settlers who are now denouncing the casual indifference that the authorities have displayed in face of these startling facts, and it is to be hoped that the conference of "organisations interested in the control of doer" which' is to take place on April 11 will .succeed in reusing our Government to vigorous . action. I <