BREEDING PHEASANTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 47, 25 February 1937, Page 11

BREEDING PHEASANTS

WORK AT GAME FARM

MINISTER IMPRESSED

Satisfaction with the work being carried out at the game farm conducted by the Wellington Acclimatisation Society at Paraparaumu was expressed today by the Minister of Internal Affairs (the Hon. W. E. Parry).

The Minister, accompanied by Mr. J. Bennett, of the Department of Internal Affairs, and officials of the Wellington Acclimatisation Society, paid an official visit yesterday to the farm.

"I was pleased to have had the opportunity of paying the visit, and was exceedingly pleased with the birds reared there this year," said Mr. Parry. "They are of a splendid type, and are very healthy and clean. Mr. Trask, who is in charge, is to be congratulated upon his good work, which proves that pheasants can be produced in New Zealand, not only in hundreds but in thousands. All that is required is to have the right men in charge—men who understand the rearing—and then to give to those men suitable equipment to carry out the work. I can assure shooters of this district that there are some very fine birds to be liberated within a few days—prior to the shooting season over 800 pheasants will have been liberated—and from what the officers explained to me, the society intends, making a big effort for next year.' ■' ' N SPORTSMEN'S HELP. "The farm is ideally situated in a good locality and the ground is well drained, which is essential. What appeared to me to be a practical example of help by sportsmen gave me particular pleasure. The officers of the society showed me an excavation, being made at weekends by a working bee of sportsmen, to facilitate the erection of more breeding pens. to enable the society to carry out a larger programme of breeding. I should like to suggest to my fellow sportsmen that we all could take a line from this splendid spirit of co-operation and make a' greater contribution towards putting this now almost, defunct sport on to a sound footing. It rests with the sportsmen themselves to decide whether our present drive to help the sport is to be successful. Our slogan should be: 'We cannot afford to allow it to fail.' It is futile for sportsmen to content themselves with criticism alone; they must get in and help to do the actual work. Our game country is dirty with pests, and hawks are numerous, but they could be kept down considerably if our sportsmen would make periodical shooting campaigns against them. It is useless to breed birds for hawks and pests to destroy, and there is no doubt that sportsmen themselves can play a big part in keeping the bush clean."