PIG-HUNTING AT WAINUI.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1039, 31 January 1911, Page 4

PIG-HUNTING AT WAINUI.

QUESTION OF PERMITS.' Pig-hunting on the l Wainui-o-mata Reserve has lately, been the; subject of correspondence between the City Council and the Wellington' Acclimatisation Society. The reserve has been for some years set apart as a sanctuary.for'deer andrecently the society wrote asking the council if it could see. it's way, in the interests of the deer, particularly during the breeding season, to withhold permits to shoot pigs iri tho reserve. ' . The' reply of the council was that no pig-shooting permits available at Wainui had been issued for years. In a later letter the society stated that somo pig-hunt-ing had been permitted on tho reserve although shooting was forbidden.- Pigs had been run down with dogs and killed with knives. _ This, it was alleged, led t'O .the deer in the "Wainui herd being disturbed, particularly does with fawns at foot. The Town Clerk has replied to this last communication.that one permit has been issued for the purpose of keeping down pigs on the reserve, but that it will bo withhold in future during periods when young deer are. likely to be disturbed. 'l'ho secretary of the Wellington Acclimatisation Society (Mr. C. I. Dasent), states that it is difficult to estimate tho nunlber of deer at Wainui. It must, however, be considerable, as the animals have been unmolested for many years. For tho same reason it is thought that the herd must include some stags with very fine heads.