SHOOTING FOR TOURISTS

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28926, 20 June 1959, Page 12

SHOOTING FOR TOURISTS

Special Areas Proposed

An open season for shooting chamois, thar and goats in the Mount Cook area and a limited season for deer shooting in Fiordland for hunters from overseas was urged by Mr H. L. Wigley (Timaru), when an open forum on “You can eat your cake and have it too” aspects of development of New Zealand’s tourist industry was held at yesterday’s session of the Convention of the New Zealand Travel and Holidays Association.

The sporting potentialities of New Zealand were greater than most realised, said Mr A. H. Hamilton (Invercargill). The attraction of trout and big game fishing continued to grow. Overseas. New Zealand was more and more featured as a sporting country.

“If we are going to sell sport in New Zealand we must examine every angle. I feel that one possible sales angle is being overlooked—the vast game potential of chamois and thar in the Southern Alps, more than sufficient to satisfy the game-hungry hunters who exist throughout the world,” said Mr Hamilton. Outside Central Europe, New Zealand was the only country where chamois existed.

Trophies could be guaranteed with every chamois and thar shot, which CQuld not be done with deer, said Mr Hamilton. Sportsmen ' who travelled wanted trophies. Cost of Control It was costing the taxpayers a lot of money to keep the animals under control, he said. It wag possible to keep them under control by using them as a tourist potential, without interfering in any way with control measures now in operation. Chamois and thar were game animals which would attract American sportsmen, said Mr Wigley. For as long as he could remember, he had been shooting in the Mount Cook region. There were man ways in which visitors could be brought in to earn overseas exchange. Most people said New Zealand had no wild flowers, no colours, said Mr Wigley, but the Mount Cook area had wild flowers of all species. With the increase of chamois and thar, that flora was almost cleared out. Since cullers had operated, the Mount Cook lily, Celmesia (which had formerly covered many acres lik® light snow), and ranunculi, had come back.

“The Mount Cook area is not al) ice and snow,” said Mr Wigley “It is the most wealthy district in New Zealand for alpine flora.” Goats would eat almost anything that was not hard rock, he said, and were causing erosion by eating off the vegetation and destroying the natural asset.

‘‘l am all for the total and complete eradication of game animals in the Mount Cook area but not in Fiordland, where there is no erosion in some areas, and in which areas could be set aside for shooting by visitors from April to May, and let the cullers come in afterwards,” said Mr Wigley.