EVIDENCE AGAINST THE KEA

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22795, 22 August 1939, Page 9

EVIDENCE AGAINST THE KEA

COUNTY COUNCIL’S DECISION CRITICISED “The decision of the Mackenzie County Council to give evidence against the kea before the Royal Coin- 'J' mission which h- s been appointed tO/investigate the sheep-farming industry is a reminder to friends of the famous - parrot that their side of the cpntrpver-. , sial case ‘ should be heard, says - a statement issued by the Forest and - Bird Protection Society. . .. . ' For years the executive of the society has held that of extermination which . high-country graziers of the South Island wished to wage against the kea was certainty not justified, and*-it had repeatedly - protested against the granting of the general taxpayers’ money by way of subsidies for ,-kea-kfllers. . f As an example cf some farmerr view of the position, Captain. Sanderson, president of the society, draws .at* tentioivto the following stetementwie- v - ported' to have been made by Mr Ev Kidd, a member of the Mackenzie - - County Council:—“lf the deems, a menace, then why not admit that the - kea is a menace, and treat it along with the deer?” - . .. _ “It is well k-iown, says Captam Sanderson, “that the deer is No. 1 enemy of the farming industries, because. it is a destroyer of native forests which should be permanent protectors .or the surface of steep watersheds and", thus savers of the soil of productive, country on the lower levels. It, is also well known that during many years some pastoralists have destroyed the protective vegetation cover on .highland slopes bv injudicious burning of tussock and over-grazing, and thus the way has been opened fotj-torces.of erosion to work havoc on •’the better land lower down. * i', “It is believed that the?kea is one of nature’s agents in the maintenance of the necessary protective vegetation; m the sub-alpine regions.; The relation, - of the high country to the; low, no* . the viewpoint -of . conservatimi, natural resources.' is one which mug* . have’ keen, intelligent attention-from. the commission-”' ' - r -