DAMAGE TO CROPS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 305, 26 December 1931, Page 10

DAMAGE TO CROPS.

BRIGHT-PLtTMED PUKEKO.

PERMITS FOR DESTRUCTION

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) , WELLINGTON, Thursday.

The statement was made yesterday by the Minister of Internal Affairs, the Hon. A. Hamilton, that in spite of the fact that the native bird pukeko is protected it can be destroyed with the permission of the Minister of Internal Affairs, and farmers who are suffering from the depredations of this bird upon their crops are entitled to seek permission to shoot it.

The Minister said that complaints have been made by farmers, notably in .the- Auckland district, -of damage done to their crops by the pukeko. The Minister said it was not apparently very well known that the pukeko, although catalogued under the Animals' Protection Act and Game Act, 1921-22, as an absolutely protected bird, could, with the signed permission of the Minister of Internal Affairs, be destroyed.

The student of natural history and the native bird-lover are admirers of the grace and beautiful plumage of the pukeko, and they are keen for the protection of the birds to be maintained. The Minister has lately granted several applications by farmers to be permitted to destroy piikekos doing damage to their properties.