DEER MENACE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 143, 14 December 1938, Page 11

DEER MENACE

BUSH CONSERVATION

MINISTER EXPRESSES CONCERN

"If the bush lovers among those persons who were largely responsible for the introduction in New Zealand of deer could see the damage the animals have done, and are still doing, to the beautiful native trees in the south the sight would make them forget for all time the sport they hoped by their action, to enjoy," stated the Minister of Internal Affairs (the Hon. W. E. Parry) today.

Not until a visit was paid to the southern forests, the Minister said, could the "damage done to native trees by deer be estimated. "I am, as should be all New Zealanders, strongly for the protection of the country's bush. It is worth fighting to save, but what I actually saw of the depredations of the animals during my recent visit south made me feel that I could lustily cheer any man who told me that he had shot a deer. I have informed the Cabinet that the money voted by Parliament for the killing of deer is expenditure worthily allocated, and that if possible the amount should be increased, because the glorious scenic beauty the bush gives the country, and the native birds that live amid it, must be saved for the people to see, admire, and enjoy."

Describing how the moose attacked native trees, Mr. Parry said the animals apparently first scraped with their teeth a tree from the bottom of its trunk until the bark became loose. Their teeth then clutched a strip and the bark was peeled off the tree-trunk from bottom to top and consumed by the deer. The fate of the tree was then, of course, sealed. "From day to day," continued the Minister, "deer do their tree-killing work, and yet there still remain shooting men who say that some deer should be retained for sport among the wilds and grandeur of our mountains and forests. I have often expressed the Government's view as to what should happen to deer. If is to kill the animals off as rapidly as it is practicable to do so. That policy I am, as Minister of Internal Affairs, carrying out. Deer are a menace to this Country. With the destruction of the native trees goes the extinction of many species of our native birds, whose songs gladden the hearts of all who hear them."