Manapouri Workers May Shoot Deer

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30215, 21 August 1963, Page 20

Manapouri Workers May Shoot Deer

(From Our Own Reporter) DEEP COVE, August 20. The Fiordland National Park Board had been asked to consider permitting men erigaged on the Manapouri power project to shoot deer and other noxious animals in their spare time, said the project manager for the Bechtel Pacific Corporation, Mr N. Long. His company would co-operate with the park board on the question, he said.

“There’s a part of the project contract that says that any labourer who does not abide by the park board regulations is subject to immediate dismissal.” said Mr Long. The chief ranger of Fiordland National Park, Mr M. Schofield, said that, subject to the approval of the Manapouri power project management, it was hoped to grant a number of shooting block permits to enable men from the Wangianella to-shoot with safety in their time off. “It is a matter for liaison with their management and this is going ahead,” he said. “We have the whole of Fiordland National Park subdivided into some 220 blocks. We sometimes amalgamate two or three shooting parties to hoot on the one block when the party numtiers exceed the block numbers. Some blocks cover 50,000 acres, and some are down to about 10,000 acres. The workmen from fire Wanganella could reach most shooting blocks in Fiordland in less than an hour’s flight by float-planes. With, say, three workmen ‘clubbing’ their finances together, a week-end’s shooting at the end of a float-plane trip would not be expensive.”

The controlled block-shoot-ing system, Mr Schofield said, practically eliminated all dangers of men shooting each other tiecause only one party was allowed on a particular black at a time. Planes for Hire Two planes with floats, each with a three-passenger capacity, will be stationed or on call at Te Anau for the duration of the Manapouri power project. Mr Schofield said that the workmen living on the Wanganella would be in a naturalists’ paradise. They would have little trouble catching a meal of blue cod from the decks of the Wanganella itself. “All the fish are in Doubtful Sound, including tuna, blue cod, jock stewarts, groper, flounders and a wide variety of sharks,” he said. “Red deer are plentiful in the top end of Doubtful Sound and nearby Gear Arm and Bradshaw Sound had been at top-carrying capacity for many years. Occasional wapiti are seen at the northern edge of Doubtful Sound. Native birds abounding in Doubtful Sound include native pigeons, tuis, tomtits.

riflemen and ■wrens, he said. “There are also penguins, bush robins, keas, kakas and wekas. In the duck family, there are the paradise, greys, teal and spoonbills. And, of course, there are black swans. Of the introduced birds, the most common are chaffinches, blackbirds and thrushes.” Mr Schofield said that shooting birds was not permitted in the national park. Scenery

Doubtful Sound, he said, was extremely scenic country. In the lower areas, rimu, rata and red beech were the dominant trees, while higher up were the silver and mountain beeches. The forest had been modified by the browsing of animals, mostly deer. Mr Schofield said that any workmen owning a crayfish pot would have little trouble in catching crayfish in Doubtful Sound. Asked about Fiordland sandflies, he said that sandflies were as numerous at Doubtful Sound as anywhere else on the West Coast. But the sound was “relatively free” of mosquitoes.