DEER SHOOT

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 59, 7 September 1938, Page 13

DEER SHOOT

WATER BOARD AREA

NO CASUAL LICENCES

OCTOBER TO MAY

During the eight months from October to May a clean-up of the deerinfested areas of the Wellington district nothwards from the WellingtonMasterton road to the Manawatu, Gorge will be undertaken by regular parties of men under the Internal Affairs Department's long-term plan of deer destruction, and, to ensure that the best results will follow, no licences for casual deer slayers will be issued. It is not that the Internal Affairs men want to do all the shooting, but that official shooting and casual shooting do not go together at all. Why this is so was explained by the Under-Secretary of the Department, Mr. J. W> Heenari, in a letter, to the City and Suburban Water Supply Board today, s It has been found necessary, he wrote, that all areas, after being shot over for a time, must be spelled for a few j weeks to allow the deer to quieten down, j so that when the men return further good tallies wili be obtained. If, after, the parties have once been through, casual shooting is allowed, the deer move off and are restive and suspicious, so that, even though the Department might- not be working in the area the success of the season's shooting is endangered." The Department will erect notices on I all roads leading to the ranges stating that no permits for the carrying! of firearms will be issued, and it asked the co-operation of the Water Board in that respect. The forestry officer, Mr. A. N. Perham, said that the area to be shot over would include the board's- land lying to the north of the Akatarawa-Wai-kanae road and on both sides of the main road from the Brown Owl onwards; the remainder of the board's land could be left open. The State Forest Service would be closing the whole of the Tararua area. ; Councillor L. , McKenzie asked whether, shooting permits were issued for the board's area ad lib. Permits were not issued to all comers, said Mr. Perham, but there was no specified number. At.times it was'"like a war," but the casual shooters did little good. , . , . ■ The board agreed to co-operate fully jwith the Department in withdrawing all shooting permits during the cleanup period, the erection of warning notices, and in publicity in regard "to the general plan. BIG SHOOT THREE YEARS AGO. About three years ago the Department^ carried out a big shoot in the head waters of the Hutt, Otaki, and Waiohine streams and parts of the Tararuas, with a tally of about 1100 deer, said Mr. Perham later. The effect was very noticeable, for whereas mobs of 12 and 16 deer were often seen before the shoot, after it one seldom saw a deer. Recently a good deal of casual shooting had been dpne, enough to send the deer far back, but not enough to have any real effect. Now the deer were beginning to come out again. "One season's controlled shooting will do ten times as muctt* good -as ten years of casual blazing away by amateurs," said Mr. Perham. ,' '