EFFECTIVE CONTROL OF DEER

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25954, 7 November 1949, Page 6

EFFECTIVE CONTROL OF DEER

BOUNTY SYSTEM ADVOCATED Last year 16,000 deer were, killed in the Canterbury and West Coast district, said Mr W. Fisher, the Grey County Council* representative, at a conference called by the Westland Catchment Board recently to discuss better njethods of controlling the deer pest. When supplying figures for the whole of the Dominion, Mr Fisher said that three years ago 12,000 deer were killed, and that in 1947, with the aid of more cullers and air transport of food for those cullers who were working in the heart of bush country, 26.000 deer were killed. Last year cullers had killed 34,000. Members of the conference, after discussing ways and means of effectively controlling the pest, agreed that a bounty system, with a minimum payment of 10s a tail, should be instituted and a resolution to Inis effect was carried, and will be sent to the Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr W. E. Parry) for consideration. The meeting considered that a bounty system would encourage cullers, and would result in a more effective coverage of the district.

The conference also decided to recommend to the Minister that a separate control district be set up for the West Coast: that officers be employed on a permanent basis, and that a full year’s operations in the district be carried out on an intensified scale.