‘There was nothing to eat’

Press, 31 May 1978, Page 15

‘There was nothing to eat’

A fortnight ago, accompanied by Messrs C. W. Groube, secretary of the Marlborough Maritime Park Board, and Eric Wilkes, a board member, I went to Arapawa Island. We climbed to Bald Hill in the face of a gale-force southerly which had prevented the Minister of Lands (Mr Venn Young and members of the Nature Conservation Council from flying to the island for an inspection. After struggling through thick scrub along the axial ridge, we entered the forest and continued climbing for about 45 minutes. Photographs were taken and I have been assured that this area is representative of much of the scenic reserve.

In the photograph reproduced On this page it can be seen that there is a total absence of understorey vegetation. I mentally compared this with some of the heavy regeneration in the Abel Tasman

National Park and the bush surrounding Lake Rotoiti in the Nelson Lakes National Park. There were few windthrown trees, but in places open to the shrieking southerly, healthy-looking trees were lifting their roots from the bare earth as the wind caught their tops.

What Dr Park had told me— that once the wind began to cut through this forest nothing would save it except strong regeneration — became obvious. We saw about 20 goats in one small area, and One small group of feral sheep. Wj saw signs of pig-root-ing in the forest, but no animal within the ’forest. There was no reason why there should be — there was nothing there to eat. Mrs Rowe, whose farm was .only a short distance from our boat, returned to Picton with us. During the trip I asked her if her opposition to the culling sprang from the fact that the goats were descendants of those Captain Cook had landed, the Old English Milche goat, the

breed of which she wished to save. Her answer, in the light of what had been strongly publicised, was surprising. “No,” she said. “I am against the indiscriminate shocrting of all wild life.” And then she added: “It doesn’t make sense to go in and slaughter these animals which could be the last of their breed.” Mr A. H. (Tony) Whittaker, one of the men who helped compile that first 1975 report (he was asked to investigate the feral sheep), is no longer with the D.S.I.R, But he is still concerned, especially for the feral sheep which are to be safe-guarded. “If you are fighting an animal welfare battle like Betty Rc/we is, then it doesn’t matter how rare the animal is, or what it is, or anything else, except that it has got feelings and doesn’t like being shot, then you don’t want it shot. But you cannot confuse that with the conservation of the vegetation because, to you, the life of each animal is valuable,” he says.

"That is why Betty Rowe is not going to get any sleep. She’s trying to use conservation for an argument. And it’s not going to work. There are conservation situations where you are dealing with an animal or an animal population which you want to conserve, but to conserve it you have to remove some of the animals.” The Arapawa sheep, he says, are distinct from all other sheep in New Zealand. Therefore, they are valuable and must be maintained as a breed. “Exactly the same argument could be applied to the goats — but only if it cgn be shown that the goats are different from goats elsewhere. If they are the same as those from Marlborough or the Wellington coastline or elsewhere, then Betty Rowe has no argument because no matter how valuable they are, they can be obtained from a variety of places,” Mr Whittaker says.