DEER-STALKING

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2753, 24 April 1916, Page 9

DEER-STALKING

SPLENDID HEADS SECURED. Mr. George Cooper, who, with Mr. It. Burrows, has been deer-stalking in the Hunter Valley, in tlie hinterland of Otago, returned to ' Wellington ,on Thursday morning, each man having secured four splendid heads. 'Of the total of eight heads secured, one is a 15-pointer, five are "royals" (12,-point-ers), one is an il-pointer, and' one a 10-pointer. Mr. Cooper, who has now been stalking for five years past, describes the sport in this remote country us splendid, better, in his opinion, than Lu the more restricted areas of deercountry in the Wairarapa. In all, they have boen absent from Wellington for a month, but of that time a week was tpont in reaching their camp and the name time in getting back. The roiito was .to Kurow by rail, 100 miles by motor to Lake Ilawea, 30 miles on a launch, and twelve, miles by "pack." According to the rules of the Otago Acclimatisation Societies, stalkers have to nominate their shooting areas, and they nominated the Lake and Cotter Rorges, steep-sided defiles that debouch on to tho Hunter Valley. „ There is a stiff climb up tho sides of the gorgo, but on top, at an elevation of between GOOOft. and 7000 ft. thero are splendid grazing areas, arid the deer are very plentiful, so plentiful, indeed, that the society i 6 paying men to shoot off_ the "weedy" stags. Strange to state, it ia the "weeds," that appear to propagate Biore rapidly than tho good stags. They saw one old stag having only six points Dn one side and one on the, other, accompanied by 20 hinds, which he had penned up in a gully, whilst not far away they saw half-a-dozen • splendid stags, with only one or two hinds. The deer have now penetrated to the slopes d{ tho Southern Alps, and, in Mr. 'Cooper's opinion, the best deer country in tho Dominiou will be on the West Coast sido of tho Alps. Somp of tho Vends aro beautifully symmetrical, and are all of a dark shade, and not so thick at the base of the antlers as tho best of tho Wairarapa heads. In soma instances tliey aro stained a dark red, li'hich is caused through rubbing against the bark of the taniwha trees. Mr. Cooper is enthusiastic over his experience, and believes that tho country they stalked over has a big sporting future.