WAPITI POACHED BY MILLIONAIRE BARON

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30823, 7 August 1965, Page 1

WAPITI POACHED BY MILLIONAIRE BARON

"Th* Press" Special Service

WESTPORT, August 6.

A case of poaching, involving a German industrial millionaire, was considered at today’s meeting of the New Zealand Deerstalkers’ Association. The matter was raised by a member of the Marlborough branch.

Speaking for the national executive, Mr A. Hood, a former president, said that the former professional hunting guide, Mr Rex Forrester, now with the Tourist and Publicity Department, had admitted both in a magazine article and in a recently-published book that he had broken the law to take Baron von Opel, of Germany, into the Fiordland National Park to shoot a Wapiti bull.

Mr Forrester admits in the book he did not tell Baron von Opel that he was breaking the law.

Mr Hood asked that the association write to the Fiordland National Park Board asking what action it proposed to take in view of Mr For-

rester’s admission and his motion was supported unanimously. “This is a free country without social barrier or privilege. It is our duty to see that this type of favoured treatment is not winked st just because it involves a v.i.p. from another country,” Mr Hood continued. “Rightful Property” “That wapiti bull was the rightful property of some New Zealand stalker who may now never get another opportunity.”

Outlining the background to the case, Mr Hood said that Mr Forrester first applied to the park board and was told that the area was under the control of the N.Z.D.A. The board was not prepared to give permission. Mr Hood said Mr Forrester then applied to him as the president of the N.Z.D.A. for permission to take Baron von Opel into the area to shoot a wapiti bull. This permission was refused on the grounds that none of New Zealand's 7000 members, irrespective of money or other factors, would be permitted such a trip. “Many of our members had spent many hours culling in the area and had yet never

been successful in drawing a marble in the wapiti ballot entitling them to shoot a wapiti bull. “Wrong In Principle” “I think it is wrong in principle that one set of regulations should apply to New Zealanders and a completely different set of regulations apply to certain privileged people,” Mr Hood said. Mr Forrester was under a moral obligation to apply to his clients the same rules that applied to the New Zealand stalkers. He has also a legal obligation to abide by the rules of the country which said that no firearms would be taken into a national park without a permit.