THE WAIMAKARIRI BASIN

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21086, 10 February 1934, Page 15

THE WAIMAKARIRI BASIN

THE DEER PROBLEM

(SMcrALLir wthttes rem the pees*.) [By PEOFESSOf. AEXOLD WALL.} In January last I had the good fortune to accompany as a passenger a small expedition to the upper waters of the Esk, organised by the Waimakariri River Trust for the study of the hydrographical conditions of the area under its control, and of the depredations of the ,»ei?r. The party included Captain Xcrex, the officer in charge of the extermination of deer; Mr Harris, engineer to the Trust, and his assistant Mr Fullerton; Professor Speight, t member of the Trust, and myself.' V/e travelled with two strong packhorsea, and Jim Ritchie, an expert packman; and T. Davison, one of the staff of deer-cullers, joined us at Anna Creek. Itinerary The country we visited is all included in the Mount Whito Station, which occupies the area between the two main branches of the \Vaimakariri on its northern side, the Esk and the Poulter, about 300,000 acres in extent. We left the Station in the afternoon of January 17, in fine hot weather, and reached the Nigger Creek Hut in about four hours, all on foot, following the valley of the Esk between the great ridges of Mount White, and Puketeraki, along the old dray road to Lochinvar, now only a pack track, passing those wonderful gravel cliffs] 500 feet in height, which have been formed within living memory, where there was formerly a fine stand of beech forest—a result of denudation by fire. We spent the night at the hut, which is beautifully situated on a lofty terrace with the bush behind it and a splendid view of the upper "Packety" range, its tawny and grey slopes, and a glorious curtain of bush. On the 18th we went on to the Anna Creek, two and a half hours' journey, and in the afternoon on again to the Forks cf the Ant Creek, where we camped in tents. This was a rather risky trip for the horses, as we went up the bed of the stream, hoping to lake them on to the terrace above it which offers good travelling, but this proved to be impossible. It was easy for us to negotiate the stream, but in one place the horses had to be led through bush past a sort of waterfall, and it was only by a r-iracle that we did not Icfc one cf them. lie was extricated from ?. very dangerous position by the !-.kili of his attendants and owes h : .3 lli'c partly to his own admirably p]acid behaviour—a horse of parts. At the Forks we had a very pleasant tamp in the bush with a hearty welcome and mayoral reception i'-T-m the resident sandflies.

The Ant rise* on the steep slopes «'f the Candlestick Range, the heads ' i its various branches being about farce or lour miles from our camp, Knd the nearest peak is Mount Turn>,\ul. G. 600 feet. On the 19th Captain Verex, Fullerton, and Davison mado ?. very long journey round Mount '.'uvnbull, vi.~-it.ing the head.--, ci '•'■rierr.s and their basins and clhr.b-

-■'"•S ever hif.h shhigly saddler, sh.ooti""£ deer end making observation.-, while Speight and myself followed

a branch to •'.:-, head under the mountain, which I climbed. On tin 20th, that indefatigable officer, Captain Yerex. went off with Fullorlon and Davison, carrying heavy packs, to camp with two of his sta" f n the other E~k (a branch of the Ilurunui), and F. returned to us in the evening after a very long day's tramping. The others rested in camp and I was able to do a bit cf plant-photography. Till now the weather had been fine, but rain set in that night from the nor'-west. During the day Ritchie went down and improved the difficu.lt place for the packhorses. "We broke camp in heavy rain on the 21st and returned to the Anr.a Creek Hut in three and a half hourr; the horses negotiated the dangerous soot triumphantly, but the creek was rising fast and all got very wet. I returned by the high ridge on the Northern side, as my boots would not face the stream again. On the 22nd we went on to Lochinvar Station, now a part of Mount White, which is close to ''Cox's PouJter." reaching the hut, a newly built one, in four hours with many halts. The old hut was down on the flats, but the new site is high on a terrace, well sheltered by beautiful bush overlooking the spacious plain of Lochinvar, and with a fine view up Cox's Poulter «nd the gorge of Nigger Creek. It rained heavily for several hours, but rleared in the evening and gave us some exceptional photographs. On the 23rd, we returned easily by way of the Camp Creek track to the Station at Mount White in about six hours, in a strong but fire nor'-wester, cold and dull, and were able to make Christchurch the same night. Captain Yerex was to have joined us at Lochinvar, but the bad weather defeated his plans.

The Country— Reminiscences

The Esk Country, with its flanking mountains, about GOGO feet high-, has been familiar to me now for over 20 years, and it always had p. great fascination for me; in fact, 1 infinitely prefer the scenery and its climate to those of far more famous and frequented beauty spots. It i-» all glaciated, with the characteristic steep chiselled faces, old terminal and lateral moraines, and residual signs of ancient lacustrine occupation. Above tower the stern barren shingly ridges and grey stony peaks, all on a huge and most impressive scale. The vast "table lands" and the lowcV s'opes of the fountains rejoice in yellow tussock, viih occasional swamps, and these are diversified by great areas of that noble beech forest of the Southern Alps, which with its sombre and unchanging colour, with the beautiful sinuous lines of its margins, its charming pakihis, and the lovely appearance of its crowding trunks, all marbled with lichen and fungus <Mi a clear grey Background so delights the eye, and the nose by its pungent and unforgettable perfume. There is about it an indescribable air of magnitude, of spaciousness, of freedom, and its lonely beauty is undefiled by tourist traffic and its attendant vulgarisms. Here the wild pigs root at their ease ~~all too many; here the red deer J>ave roamed and multiplied, licensed and protected, at their own iweet will; here the tussocky faces •re dotted with the station sheep, •nd wild cattle haunt the bush-clad

S f ° reSt 1S mUSical vallev, S lrdi h. and the rof>kv haSr TT 1 ]! the scream of the DfTp= nd , he ¥ rsh mJr paradise duck, while the j more secluded glens still harbour the IrkhJf mour ! tam duc k, and the nnll= n 3 ", Ecr^ b is alive with redpolls and yellowhammers. So to myselt this last journey was rich »n memories; of long days spent in pursuit of the pig, the stalking of solitary boars and the less pleasant slaughter of innocent sows and their offspring—a necessary work; of botanical excursions into the dark gorges, and windy days on the shingly ridges; of camps with mustering parties in hut or tent; and of disturbed stags standing at gaze or plunging through heavy streams—all sacred in those old days and untroubled by stalker or culler. The Candlesticks The only high climbing available to me on this expedition was on the Candlesticks Range, between the more western branches of the Esk and Cox's Poulter. This range has a rather forbidding but impressive aspect, being extremely rocky and barren and rising suddenly and steeply from the bush-bound gorges below it. Botanically I found it to be of no great interest or importance, though there are, of course, numbers of species of alpines upon its lon« screes and its lofty crests. Each ridge is topped by more or less isolated knobs or "gendarmes," and I suppose that some fancied resembalance of these to old-fashioned candlesticks must have suggested the name. The different peaks have recently received special names, Mount Turnbull, e.g., from the present lessee of Mount White, and Mount Crossley from the lessee of Esk Head Station. They run to about 6,600 feet in height. The rock is all grey wacke, and it is certainly the "worst" rock I have ever had to negotiate. I had to approach up the margin of a very steep shingle-slide which offered good going enough, but once the ridge is reached progress is very slow and uncomfortable, or even dangerous, as the rock is all loose and continually falling away, so that even many large blocks have to be treated with great caution. And as I had a very strong r.or'-wcst gale to contend with my visit to the summit was not a pleasure-trip. j The high alpine plants, such as Haastia recurva and Hebe (Veronica) Kaastii, are of course to be seen here and there, but the mortality among them must be very heavy, as their corpses show, scattered below the precipitous faces.

The Deer Troblcm I must now turn to practical mat-; tevs. Everybody knows now, of' course, that the deer have become a! nuisance; that it was a great mistake j to introduce them at all; and that! the Government has embarked, not | too soon, upon a policy of extermm- | ation. In the whole of the Waimak-1 ariri Basin, which includes the j National Park at Arthur's Pass, the | question assumes a special and j peculiar importance, for we do not, want to see the vegetation destroyed ! in the Park, for scenic, scientific; and sentimental reason?, while the j very sat'etv of the City of Christ- | church itself, and of the Plains, ( depends ultimately upon the be- \ haviour of the river, so that any ] material damage done to the forest i of the area concerns the River Trust, j and we have very clear and con- j vincing evidence of the serious _ results arising from the destruction j cf forest by any means. We know, i lor instance, that any increase in I the run of shingle must if possible ) be checked, and that the disappear- j ance of bush, or of tussock covering,' tend.; to release more and more j debris and cause it-; ultimate delivery into one or other of the \ tributary streams of the Waimakvvlvi and thence into the main river. Tl nut it briefly, the position at i:rescrit is that the doer arc destroying the forest, or rather it; chance of regeneration, by browsing upon the seedlings, not everywhere but in many places, and we can see Hint if the deer are allowed to breed r.nd multiply indefinitely it is only a question of time before the whole ; : district is denuded of forest, j \ Therefore it is obviously wise to destroy the pests as completely j as may be possible before it is too! late, and this is the present policy j of the Trust. The work is arduous, j difficult, and only to be properly I carried out by wise direction on the '■ ; part of the authorities, and by ; expert knowledge, good marksma.:- ; ship, bush-craft. and incessant labour on the part of the stall. In Captain Yerex we have an exceed- ! ingly energetic, able, and reliable i head, and I can say from what we saw of his subordinates that the work is being done most efficiently and, I think, cheaply. I have the greatest admiration for these workers, who must be out in all weather, live hard and uncomfortably, mostly in tents, work by no easy regulation from 8 to 5, but on occasions from daylight to dark, with few or no comforts, no diversions, only a slender wage, and great expenses for equipment, etc.—Boots alone must be a very serious item for them. Suggestions The general policy of the Government and of the River Trust being, as I have said, quite wise, and the operations conducted as efficiently as the present state of the country's finances permits, it may seem presumptuous on my part to offer any suggestions, yet I do make so bold as to try two. The first is very simple and easy. Seeing how greatly the deer are attracted by j "English grass," or by any other i forms of cultivation for that matter, \it seems to me that if a certain I area in every branch stream could [be ploughed and sown down in such grass it might facilitate the destruction of the deer, as they would always tend to frequent these spots in preference to any other. One sees this, lor example, on the slopes behind the Lochinvar hut, where certain places are used by sheep as a camp, and show a remarkable growth of good feed, and these are very frequently visited by deer and pigs and are well known to the station packhorses. Such spots would act. I think, as permanent iurcs to the deer. The other scheme is a bigger thing and there are many pros and cons. It seems to me that the time has now come when the whole of the Northern side of the Waimakariri Basin, including Mount White, Lochinvar, and Riversdale ; and possibly also Cora Lynn and Graeme on the Southern side should either be merged in Ihe National Park or vested in the Waimakariri River Trust as a public reserve, and no longer leased to individuals (with proper compensation, of course, to the present lessees). The advantages of this are obvious —single control and a single aim; that is, the conservation of the area in the interests of the river alone. Some loss to the community, —temporary, I think—must be expected, but seeing how much is at stake anv such loss ought to be squarely faced. The whole business of deer destruction, and the keeping