MENACE OF SHAGS TO TROUT

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22306, 21 January 1938, Page 12

MENACE OF SHAGS TO TROUT

4> Government To Be Approached REMOVAL OF ANOMALIES SOUGHT The Government is to be asked to appoint men to investigate the depreciations of shags among trout, and to remove anomalies in the conditions under which shags may at present be destroyed. A decision to make these j representations was readied by the South Island Acclimatisation Societies I at their conference yesterday. Mr G. j L. Pomfret-Dodd presided. The decision was reached after discussion of a letter from the Nelson society, which staled that many unavailing representations had been made in the past, and which voiced a mild complaint against the conflicting interests of the Government departments concerned. The Government, the letter said, was keeping a real brooding ground in the centre of the district—Lake Rotorua. It was a "hotbed of shags." For five years the society had kept a check of the numbers of shags, and had worked to establish fish in the lake. Just as they were merlin;' with success the Government declared the. lake and a half-mije area around it a scenic reserve. The shags had increased, and the fishing had decreased. Repeated applications had been made asking for permission to shoot the shags each November. The former Minister for Lands had told the society that as there was no available data on the feeding habits of the birds he regretted that he could not grant the application. Since then, the Minister for Lands (the Hon'. F. Langstone) had considered the lake practically a .sanctuary, and accordingly regretted that no action could ho taken. The Hon. W. E. Parry (Minister for Internal Affairs) had replied: "Since the question comes under the jurisdiction of my colleague, Mr Langstone. 1 am unable to take any action." Tlie Minister for Marine (tlv.Hon. P. Fraser) said he had referred the application to the Minister for Lands, who saw no justification in deoartjng from his previous decision. "We feel." the letter stated, "thai with the birds under the Minister for Iniernal Affairs, the fish under the Minister for Marine, and the land and water under tlio Minister for Land" there will always be a conflict of interests." Major C. D. Mackenzie (Lakes District}: This is one way in which llv SoiHh island conference can assist. 1 move that we sunport the Nelso.i societv by making representations to the Government to rectify the injustice. It was one of the council's functions. flu. chairman agreed, and it was a matter which the council could prosecute. Mr *H. G. Williams (Otago) suggested that all societies could make I '. -forts to collect data about the shag •r-nace. the data to be sent to the cuincil foi' tabulation. Mr J. McDonald (South Canterbury): We have no doubts about llv destructiveness of the shags, but the Minister seems to be not quite satisfied about it. Department and Kansin? "I would like to mention that one point emphasised by the department was for more efficient ranging," he aoued. "What is the use of having more efficient ranging unless we are able 1o execute the powers of ranging to the full? They are asking us to range. but they won't let us destroy the birds o.i those particular areas." Scientific research, lie said, had been undertaken by the Wellington Acclimatisation Society (employing a science student), and in every case examined it had been proved that shags were feeding on trout. Mr S. Cox (Waimate): I wonder if we could appoint someone to investigate. We all know what shags do. Could wc not appoint someone lo make a report to the Government? Wc have been going on about the shag menace for a long time, and we are getting no further with it. Mr Williams: Reports have been made by a university professor lrom Otago and thev were conclusive. A motion that the Government should be asked to appoint investigators and to clear up anomalies in the conditions regulating the destruction of shags was amended by the chairman to include a recommendation that the council could provide the Minister for Internal Affairs with indisputable evidence of the birds destructiveness.