REQUEST REFUSED

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20308, 6 August 1931, Page 13

REQUEST REFUSED

OPEN SEASON FOR PUKEKO. / .. . DAMAGE ALLEGED TO CROPS. [THE PRESS Special Service.] DUNEDIN, August 5. Considerable controversy has recently revolved around tho point whether oriiot the pukeko damages • farmers'crops, and. representations have repeatedly Deen made by those who are most interested for, an open season. Iho Department of Internal Attairs, however, has turned a deaf ear to'the pleas ot farmers and Acclimatisation Societies alike, and for three years these birds nave oepU lett practically unmolested. i hey are proline oreeaers ana a result ot tins is that .me swamp lands of utago, particularly in tne iaieri and jjaniotoio districts, are now nteraily swarming witn puueKo, and the larmers • whose land ooruers on cue lanes and swamps are sunuring consideraoly by reason ot the depredations or the Dirds oil their gram and root, ci'ops. A reporter recently visited several farmers m the Taieri district and communicated with others in different parts ot Otago,' and with one exception every landholder was of the opinion tliat tne only cure for the present evil is a short open season. It was generally considered that it there were jsoino snooting among the birds it would have the ettect ot making .them wild and scattering them. Most of the landholders who were approached stated that if ah open season were not allowed, farmers would be left with no other means of protecting themselves but poisoning the birds, and they would be unwilling to do that if they could help it, as they had no desire to see tho pukeko exterminated, the probable result of widespread poisoning. The Otago Acclimatisation Society's ranger has had considerable opportunity for watching the birds in the ccurso of his journeys about the province, and lie could offer no reason for the Government'is attitude in refusing the repeated requests made by t}ie Society and othera to have "an open

season declared. He said there'was no doubt at all about the damage which was being done by the pukeko, and declared the farmers would have no recourse but to poison' the birds if an open season were not granted.