"HEAD-HUNTING."

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 774, 24 March 1910, Page 8

"HEAD-HUNTING."

■ ALLEGED. ABUSE OF'-. DEER- ''■[.::: -,'- : STAKING'.' .:...;- ;; .COMPLAINT FROM WAIRA'RAPA. The stalking season is not" yet, but the ! crack ~ot the rifle is" not. an uncommon 'sound in the ■ deer country at the , back- of Martinliorough, according to a gentleman -who 'visited the: locality.' quite recently.;''He states'.'.that it is ■ comnioii .knowledge i. : that..'/stalking- is commenced in the district- weeks before the season opens, and- gives' that' as the : reason for■ the..-poor, sport usually experienced/by .those who stick to the laws governing the-sport. ; The chief burden of pur informant's complaint is not the abuse;'of the.law, as regards the season.' It is something.a deal more serious, a'ndsomething ;■ that 'the.'Acclimatisatidn jSociety might well look, ;into. ; The allegation made by him concerns what he says has grown into quite a business, i.e., the secunng'-of "head-skins with which to cover, the heads shot by those stalkers who will not take, the trouble to' out the head off Jow, down on the neck,,. and skin,, it;-. there. and then; bnt'rather cut up the neck,'.just under-the base' of: the- skull, depending on someone else to supply the full head-skin for the mounting process, .This .is stated. to: have grown to be,- quite a practice-in the Wairarapa—a practice surely to be gravely deprecated. It means that for every head so mounted .two stags have to: be shot. This is put:forward''as a reason for the ; alleged" degeneracy of- the heads in the Wairarapa;. The few good heads that may .be" foirnd • when ■, the season ,opens, soon fall to the guns, and to supply the skins, for mounting them, six or eighi>pointers are shot, which process naturally.'. limits the' number of ten and twelve, pointers for the following : season . .. •. .-.