Hunters Chosen To Shoot Wapiti In Fiordland Area

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29077, 14 December 1959, Page 9

Hunters Chosen To Shoot Wapiti In Fiordland Area

(New Zealand Press Association)

INVERCARGILL, Dec. 13.

The selection of 21 men to lead parties into Fiordland’s wapiti country next year for a month’s trophy hunting was made by ballot in Invercargill on Saturday night. The 21 blocks for allocation were sought by 87 eager hunters from many parts of New Zealand.

An application from a German sportsman arrived too late for inclusion in the ballot, but to fulfil his request it was decided to allot him one of the five culling blocks. He will go in with a guide before the 1960 wapiti season starts on March 16.

The wapiti committee of the Deerstalkers’ Association, which organises the annual ballot for blocks and controls shooting in the area, hopes to maintain a trophy herd of pure wapiti for posterity. It has reserved five blocks for culling purposes only, and thp men who work these blocks each year do so at their own expense in the interests of keeping the herd in good order. Red deer from the Dusky Sound area further south have been crossing with wapiti, and the cullers working in some of the Dominion’s toughest country have been out to eliminate the hybrids. The present pure wapiti herd is estimated to be about 2000 strong. Lake Te Anau is the key to the area which covers between 1,500,000 and 2,000,000 acres—almost half the area of Fiordland National Park—and stretches north from the line of the lake’s middle arm to the Upper Worsley river.

Most of the parties will go In to the area by boat across the lake, while others will be flown in by amphibian aircraft. On Saturday night, about 35

deerstalkers watched the chairman of the Fiordland National Park Board (Mr G. J. Watt) draw the names for the 21 blocks.

The successful applicants, most of whom will lead parties of three guns, are: Lower Worsley, S. T. Robinson (Murchison); Upper Worsley, D. T. Johnston (Wellington, the national secretary of the Deerstalkers’ Association); Franklin bush, L. R. Dickson (Blackmount, Otautau); Narrows creek, C. A. Leigh (Pahiatua); Henderson burn, M. I. Fallow (Otahuti); Nitz creek, B. Campbell (Wembley Downs, Timaru); Upper Glaisnick, S. J. Treadwell (Wellington); Lugar burn, A. Macauley (Mossburn); Loch burn, G. S. Max (Richmond, Nelson); Mid burn, J. A. Richardson (Mataura); Stuart bush, W. Lindsay (Invercargill); Wapiti river, G. E. Sim (Blackmount, Otautau); CharlesCaswell prospect, R. F. Gardiner (Ohakune); Caswell Sound, R. P. Oliver (Takapau, Hawke’s Bay); Caswell-George prospect, E. N. Morgan (Motueka), working from Whitewater river, and J. Shaw (Lochiel), working from Caswell Sound; George Sound, G. T. Fairey (Tawa); George-Blight prospect, D. Pigett (Shannon); Pitt block, W. J. Parfitt (Otahuti); Wild native, J. H. Ayers (Wyndham); Bligh-Sutherland prospect, B. H. Pearce (Clinton).