SCARCITY OF DUCK

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 107, 9 May 1939, Page 5

SCARCITY OF DUCK

SPORTSMAN'S LAMENT

(Special to the "Evening Post.")

MASTERTON, This Day.

"The next generation won't know [what a duck is," said a sportsman of thirty years' experience, when referring to the fact that this year ducks were scarcer than ever around Wairarapa Lake. "There should be a close season for them," he said. "The draining of swamps and lagoons has destroyed , their feeding grounds. Lagoons around Wairarapa Lake that were formerly frequented by ducks and swans have now been pumped dry by electricity."

He said he had never known ducks to be so scarce as they were this year and it was useless for the Wellington Acclimatisation Society to state otherwise. It stood to reason, he pointed out, that if the feeding grounds were reclaimed for stock, the duck and swan population must suffer. Around Wairarapa Lake alone there were some hundreds, in fact well over a thousand acres of former swamp that were now carrying sheep. Unless prompt and effective action were taken to conserve tho- haunts of waterfowl they must inevitably disappear and it was time the Acclimatisation Society took cognisance of the position. He added that the views he expressed were in general agreement with those of a party of sportsmen who were shooting in a certain area near Wairarapa Lake.