WILD LIFE CONTROL

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 134, 3 December 1941, Page 7

WILD LIFE CONTROL

STATE INTERVENTION

The statement made in Invercargill by the Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr. Parry) that all pests, from rabbits to deer, should be under the control of a national wild life department which should conduct research, was criticised yesterday by Mr. D. J. Gibbs, chairman of the council of the Wellington Wild Life Control and Acclimatisation Society. He said that by creating a new State ; department the control of wild life would pass from acclimatisation societies to the Government and that the voluntary work now being done by members would become a charge on the, State. •.-..,. ./•; ,:y ■", ... "Ofcoursej licence-holders will have to' pay," said Mr. Gibbs". { "but. there is a limit to their contributions. The balance will be required to be found by the State. The present system of licence-holders electing their own councils is most democratic, and should be adhered to, as State aciministration takes away from the individual the personal interest he has in the wild life of the Dominion. "The Wellington; .societyat present spends over £200^yearly on fish re- ; search, arid £320 a year on vermin conitrol, and in both' these activities much voluntary assistance is given. This voluntary work would be lost if the State took over control. ]Nfo attempt at national; refprins .should be made -without the.fuli?consent- and- co-opera-iioii^bf aIH wild-life cotrol and acclimatisation^ societies."