Duty on sports goods under attack

Press, 30 August 1977, Page 29

Duty on sports goods under attack

The social decline in New! Zealand communities, and| social problems encountered: by younger people, can be at-| tributed largely to the] policies being expounded by! bureaucratic Government de-1 partments, and over-zealous politicians. This was asserted by the! national president of the Big Game Hunters’ Association, Mr B. Candy, of Ashburton, in his annual report to the association’s national conference at Auckland. Mr Candy said that the increase of between 30 and 50 per cent in duty on sports equipment was one of the most detrimental policies drawn up by "inept and uninformed politicians,” and inflicted on recreational organisations. His report said "a lot of woolly thinking had gone into that piece of unnecessary legislation,” which was acting further to restrict healthy I outdoor recreation. To try to soften the blow, the same politicians had contrived to “hand out a few million dollars” in the guise of sport and recreation grants. Mr Candy said the legislation was the first deliberate and disguised attempt to take firearms from legitimate owners. They were being deprived at every tum in their attempts to pursue their chosen sport. If governments outlawed guns, only outlaws would have guns, he said.

In the bureaucratic system under which New Zealand was governed today, the dollar sign was of far greater significance than the physical and cultural well-being of the people.

The report expressed concern about the diminishing numbers of trophy game animals available to recreational hunters. The point had now been reached, through! “bureaucratic policies of extermination, and the butchering of animals by commercial ! hunters,” that the very survival of some species was in jeopardy. Mr Candy cited the Fiordland wapiti herd, the only one in the Southern Hemisphere, which recreational hunters were permitted to hunt for two weeks each year if they were successful in a ballot, whereas commercial operators were permitted to butcher the animals for monetary gain for the other U| months. Yet the wapiti animals were a public resource in a public domain. Mr Candy said the association was determined to see: “much-needed changes” in the administration of New Zealand’s national parks. His report listed also the rusa, sambar, fallow, sika, and red deer species, as well as thar, chamois, and wild boars as being over-ex-ploited for monetary gain. The present Government had not set aside one small area for recreational hunting of thar, which was one of the most prized game animals in the world. The Forest Service, under a “cloud of secrecy,” proposed to set aside six areas of other recreational hunting, about which the association had had no opportunity to observe or comment. The quantity or quality of game animals in these areas was not known, but the situation resembled that in North America where Red

Indians were herded on to reservations while the rest of the land was exploited by the greedy few. Mr Candy’s report emphasised the work the association was doing in the field of recreation and sport, and in conservation of the environment. He said an increase of 50 per cent in membership in the last year was a just reward to the dedicated members who had supported the association in pursuing its aims, and to further advance the opportunities available to members, and to other organisations, to pursue their chosen sport. Other matters traversed in the report included the association's efforts to have the! use of 1080 poison curtailed j because of its danger to native birds, domestic stock, and the environment; criticism of the exploitation of beedi forests; the operations' of “illegal” safari-hunting companies and sales of land to foreign speculators; and a call for severer penalties on helicopter operators “who prefer to operate outside the law.”