CANADIAN GEESE

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25933, 13 October 1949, Page 3

CANADIAN GEESE

FARMERS WANT DESTRUCTION OPEN SEASON ADVOCATED A deputation of five from the Lake Ellesmere Settlers’ Association met t£e council of the North Canterbury Acclimatisation Society last evening and put its case for an open season for the destruction of Canadian geese. Mr G. A. Lassen, the leader of deputation, said that the damage done by the geese was tremendous. The situation had deteriorated and was getting rather serious. Various ways had beeh tried to get rid of the geese, but they went from one property to another. The number of geese that had been killed was a mere bagatelle. Mr O. J. Osborne said the position was a serious one from the production point of view. He was farming 2000 acres. It was not what the geese ate. but what they fouled. Sheep jusr would not graze where the geese had been. The geese were very cunning. When a man was on a horse they did not take any notice; but when a man went out on foot they were gone.

Mr F. P. Wakh (chairman of the Aid for Britain National Council) had asked for a 25 per cent, increase from all farmers and it was a “poor show’* when the farmers had to contend with the geese as at present, said Mr Osborne. He had seen geese in stubble paddocks; if they had come into the paddocks a few days earlier whole crops would have been affected.

“The only way to destroy them is in the nest or something like that.** said Mr C. Grey. He had 1600 acres by the lakeside practically covered in geese. Near the lake the geese were worse. When they went out of a paddock they blackened the sky.

“I feel that the farmers are overburdened with an unnecessary menace.” said Mr A. H. C. Nutt. “The settlers were not considered when the geese were introduced, and it is up to the Department of Internal Affairs to do something quickly. I feel that the job should be tackled in the hign country. I wrote to the Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr W. E. Parry) some time ago and asked him to put the geese in the same class as the deer. If the department or the society don’t do something I will have to do something myself. The matter wants the co-operation of South Island societies; the geese are just as bad, at Lake Wanaka.” said Mr Nutt.

Asked by a member of the council to give an estimate of the geese population Mr Nutt said that at the beginning of February, on an average, there would be about 2000 geese on his property. When asked if the deputation wanted an open season for all shooters or merely for the landowners. Mr Lassen said that a resolution had been passed at a meeting of his association favouring an open season for all shooters. He suggested that a few days before the season opened an organised drive by the Air Force—fhe birds were frightened of aeroplanes —and the society should be made. Society’s View The president of the society (Mr W. J. Mac Gibbon) said that the council was fully aware of the farmers’ problem. The council was not in favour of an open season all the year round because it did not think ,tl) e geese could be controlled in that way. The council considered that they could be controlled in the breediuft stage and application had been made to the Minister of Interna] Affairs -io destroy the geese in the flapper stafttf. He understood that the department had an investigator in the back country at the present time. He had written to Federated Farmers asking for the co-operation of the back-country farmers. Mr Osborne: What is the position of a farmer killing the vermin? Mr Mac Gibbon: The goose is not ! yet a vermin. It is still subject to the game regulations. Mr Osborne: The farmer is out all i day and sometimes at night, and he 1 is not going to sacrifice his crops for the sportsmen. After further discussion Mr Lassen thanked the society for hearing the i deputation.