DAMAGE TO NATIVE TREES

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22584, 14 December 1938, Page 14

DAMAGE TO NATIVE TREES

Depredations of Deer In Southern Forests

GOVERNMENT’S POLICY OF! EXTERMINATION [THE PRESS Special Service.! WELLINGTON, December 13. “If bush lovers among those persons who were largely responsible for the introduction into New Zealand of deer could but see the damage the animals have done, and are still doing, to the beautiful native trees in the south, the sight would make them forget for all time the sport they hoped by their action to enjoy,” said the Minister for Internal Affairs (the Hon. W. E. Parry) to-day. Not until a visit was paid to the southern forests, the Minister said, could the damage done to native trees by deer be estimated. “I am, as should be all New Zealanders, strongly for the protection of the country’s bush. It is worth fighting for; but what I saw of the depredations of animals during my recent visit to the south made me feel 1 could lustily cheer any man who told me he had shot a deer. I have informed the Cabinet that the money voted by Parliament for the killing of deer is expenditure worthily allocated, and that if possible the amount should be increased, because the glorious scenic beauty bush gives the country, and the native birds that live amid it, must be saved for the people to see, admire, and enjoy.” , , Describing how moose attacked native trees, Mr Parry said the animals apparently first scraped the tree with their teeth from the bottom of its trunk until the bark became loose. Their teeth' then clutched a strip, and the bark was peeled off the tree trunk from bottom to top and consumed. The fate of the tree was then sealed. . , „ . . “From day to day,” continued the Minister, “deer do their tree-killing work, and yet there remain shooting men who say that some (Jeer should be retained for sport. I have often expressed the Government’s view as to what should happen to deer. It is to kill the animals off as rapidly as it is practicable to do so. That policy I am, as Minister for Internal Affairs, carrying out. Deer are a potent menace to this country. With the destruction of native trees goes the extinction of many species of our native birds.”