MENACE TO FISH

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 17, 21 January 1938, Page 11

MENACE TO FISH

PROTECTED BIRDS

(By Telegraph- Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, January "20. Strong complaint about the damage to trout and salmon caused by two protected birds, the white-fronted/ tern and the black-billed gull, was expressed by the Waimate delegate, Mr. S. Cox, at the conference of South Island acclimatisation societies. The complaint, based on a remit from the Waimate Society, led the conference to adopt a resolution that the Minister of Internal Affairs (the Hon. W. E. Parry) should be informed of the damage these, birds were causing and that he should be asked to have data collected for investigation. j

"In years gone by the Maoris kept some check on the numbers of the birds by gathering their eggs in kerosene tins," said Mr. Cox, "but since the. protection has been imposed "the gulls have increased in numbers tremendously and there is little hope of keeping them in check. They have become a menace."

Part of the trouble was that protection prevented even one of the -birds being taken for examination. They could not even be taken for research.