200 Partridges For Release At Ellesmere And Kaiapoi

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29389, 16 December 1960, Page 13

200 Partridges For Release At Ellesmere And Kaiapoi

Two hundred partridges will be liberated in two areas in Canterbury in February, the Department of Internal Affairs advised the North Canterbury Acclimatisation Society. This will be the first time partridges have been liberated on a large scale in New Zealand. Small numbers of partridges have been released in Canterbury on previous occasions but have never survived more than two years. The birds were bred at _a game farm at Bulls. One hundred birds in five batches of 20 will be liberated on four-mile square sites tn Ellesmere and near Katapoi.

The department’s letter said the local society would be expected to provide liberation pens on the sites and to assist in the liberation. The birds would be flown to Harewood under the care of a game officer of the department who would supervise their liberation. Mr G. Mugford said he hoped the society would be given more information on the sites as landowners would have to be asked for their co-operation. Some areas were very prone to poaching and local knowledge of the activities of poachers might mean that none of the birds would survive. The president (Dr. D. McK.

Dickson) said he was aware Of the possible dangers from poaching and full precautions would be taken before the birds were liberated. A proposal to allow Canadian geese to be shot in the evenings was opposed by Mr W. I. Donald. The recommendation to allow shooting from 6 a.m. to midnight between June 20 and July 30 would mean day shooters would suffer as the geese would be disturbed during the evenings, he said. Mr Mugford said Canadian geese were increasing so rapidly in the Lake Ellesmere area that if evening shooting was restricted then landowners near the lake

might have to start poisoning the geese. A motion by Mr Donald that the evening shooting hours be prohibited was lost. Hotels Open on Boxing Day.— Although for industrial award purposes Christmas Day (which falls on. a Sunday) has been “Mondayised,” hotels will open on Boxing Day, December 26. “The observance of Christmas Day on Monday will be for industrial purposes only, and the hotels will be open,” said a Wellington spokesman for the Hotel Proprietors’ Association yesterday.—(P.A.)