WARAPARAUMU GAME FARM.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 760, 8 March 1910, Page 8

WARAPARAUMU GAME FARM.

T •';;;' OFFICIAL VISIT. THE INCUESIONS OF STOATS. ;. ■ Three " members .of the council of . the. AVelliu'gton. Acclimatisation Society. tJMLessrs. J. ,J. Devino. L. H. Wilson, aud ;'O; B. 'J.'rimnell)" recently paid 'a visit, to ithe society's game farm;,Tne farm, which ; Ss "situate about eight miles lrom I'ara- - (paraumu, contains .several hundred acres ((formerly, part of :the Government /Forest tßeserve), and is still ,in charge of Mr. ... Sass,vthe ;.society's■ (Saretaker. It was ■. -ascertained by the visitors that about ■ .175 young wild duck.'of .different species, ■ and about 2-50 young pheasants, haa been wared.-'during!' breeding' season, which ■i£ ' now' oyer, and 1 these, together with - Beveraliyoung, deer, are now available for : ; ' distribution and. sale by the society. ;By in' "arrangement effected some -time,-ago "between, the society" and the Government, .who, co-operate in the work of clearing "many *acros of;the dense bush, and forming deer paddocks, one half of the yearly increase of the,; deer now goes to ;tbs . .Tourist Department! for. distribution bj : ■ the]'latter in' those districts which it desires to'see stocked with red deer- The ; society's. caretaker; has had to contend in recent; years with a' new' difiiculty in the ;-!•>'•. - rearing-; of game ' birds, ' namely; the • de-' ; , predations of 'stoats ;■ and .-weasels, - who . steal the eggs from"hatching^birds, and • kill \the young birds When hatched. The : . stoats/and weasiels, have' invaded Paraparaumu and the.Settled districts in the ▼icinity, and thence have ,-worked their .way over to : the game farm. One hundred of these/marauders have met their df-oin at the game; farm diiriug the ' past twd .breeding seasons. These im- -;, ported -.vermin for, some years past have ■been a serious nionaCo to/the, increase of liberated, game - birds,/but/' ft,/was 'considerec' that, the : isolated game' farm, with ■ its numerous/ fences; a.nd -runs, of /strong wire netting, would prove a" safe retreat from their - depredations. : • Sportsmen, naturalists, and others competent to form ' an' opinion on the subject,; consider that unless the. work: of destroying the stoats and .weasols which ari spreading so enormously all -over the, country is ,taken in hand by the Government: or-by the societies under subsidy from the Government,. and in- a' manner similar ./to the ' crusado which W(|S- proclaimed- ... against • rats : a fow.iyears ago when plague . threatened, it will be only' a 'matter of ~ a very' few years; before the very'im- ....-; portpnt_ work .of; the Wellington Accli- . matis'ation ; Society: in breeding and'dis- . tributing game birds will Ix- absolutely v futile, and have to be abandoned.