BUSHLAND PESTS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 269, 12 November 1943, Page 2

BUSHLAND PESTS

RUIN IN SOUNDS AREA ORGANISED DRIVE URGED (0.C.) MARLBOROUGH, this day. Farmers present at a meeting of the Marlborough Sheepowners' Federation testified to the manner in which deer, pigs, and goats have increased in numbers during the past three years, due to the absence of many shooters in the armed forces. After briefly discussing the problem of dealing with them the meeting decided to draw the matter to the notice of the Internal Affairs Department, and to ask for an organised drive against them in April of next year. Mr. G. L. Rogers prophesied that in a few years there would be no forest at all left in the Sounds area. "They are absolutely ruining it— there is no young growth coming on, and once the old growth is gone there will be nothing left," he remarked. It was pointed out that there was not much use individual owners attempting to clear their stations of the animals, which simply moved on to someone else's property. On the other hand the culling expeditions organised by the Department made a clean sweep right through.