PROTECTED BIRDS CAUSE DAMAGE

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22306, 21 January 1938, Page 17

PROTECTED BIRDS CAUSE DAMAGE

* TROUT AND SALMON DESTROYED ACCLIMATISATION SOCIETY'S COMPLAINT A strong complaint about the damage to trout and salmon caused by two protected birds—the white-fronted tern and the black-backed gull—was expressed by the Waimate delegate (Mr S. Cox) at the conference of South Island Acclimatisation Societies in Christchurch yesterday. The complaint, based on a remit from the Waimate Society, led the conference to pass a resolution that the Minister for Internal Affairs (the Hon. W. E. Parry) should be informed of the damage the birds were causing, and that he should be asked to have data collected for investigation. . "In years gone by the Maoris kept some check on the numbers of the birds by gathering their eggs in kerosene tins." said Mr Cox; "but since protection has been imposed the gulls have increased in numbers tremendously, and there is little h°Pe of keeping them in check. They have become a menace." As the societies would know, he had been prosecuted for shooting a blackbacked gull, Mr Cox added. He had resigned as chairman of the Waimate Society; but he had been re-elected. Part of the trouble was that the protection prevented even one of the birds from being taken for examination. They could not even be taken for research. . The remits from the Waimate Society asked that the protection on the black-backed gull and white-fronted tern be removed in the vicinity of rivers in which the birds had become a menace to fish, and that the protection be wholly removed at a distance .0 miles inland. Mr J. McDonald (South Canterbury) suggested that the remits be amended. He moved that the council of the societies co-operate with the Waimate Society in obtaining permission from the Minister to gather enough data to incriminate the birds. After discussion, it was agreed that the Minister should be informed and asked to take steps.