DESTROYING FORESTS

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 99, 21 January 1926, Page 4

DESTROYING FORESTS

MINISTER SAYS DEER SHOULD GO

Bt Telegraph—-Pbesb Association

Dunedin, January 20. Tn a speech at the. nurserymen’s conference to-day, the Hon. G. J. Anderson said he ’was sorry that some imported animals had been brought to New* Zealand. Take the opossum. He had removed the protection off these annuals, and had declared an open season, so that they could make commercial use of them. Deer were going to destroy New Zealand forests as sure as the sun rose, and they should eliminate them altogether. Because a few tourists came here for shooting were they going to allow their forests to be destroyed? They should remember that these animals in their native country had thousands of miles over which to range, and they had put them in a 'little corner of New Zealand,, in amongst forests never used to animals of that sort. What must they expect? As they increased they would destroy the forests and make the land a barren wilderness instead e-f the beauty spot it was to-day.