KEA’S FOES & FRIENDS

Grey River Argus, 29 August 1939, Page 8

KEA’S FOES & FRIENDS

EVIDENCE FOR ROYAL COMMISSION. The decision of the Mackenzie County Council to give evidence against the Kea before the Royal Commission which has been appointed to investigate the sheep-farming industry, is a reminder to friends of the famous parrot that their side of the controversial case should be heard. ' For years the executive of the* Forest and Bird Protection Society has held that the war of extermination which high-country graziers of the South Island wish to wage against the Kea is certainly not justified, and it has repeatedly protested against the granting of the general taxpayers’ money by way of subsidies for Keakillers. As an example of some farmers’ distorted view of the position, Captain Sanderson, President of the Society, draws attention to the following statement of Mr P. Kidd, a member' of the Mackenzie County Council:— “If the deer is a menace then why not admit that the Kea is a menace, and treat it along with the deer?” “It is well known,” comments Captain Sanderson, “that the deer is No. 1 enemy of the farming industries, be-

cause it is a destroyer of native forests which should be permanent protectors of the surface of steep watersheds and thus savers of the soil of productive country on the lower levels. It is also well known that during many years some pastoralists have destroyed the protective vegetation cover on highland slopes by injudicious burning of tussock and overgrazing, and thus the way has been opened for forces of erosion to work havoc on the better land lower down. “It is believed that the Kea is one of Nature’s agents in the maintenance of the necessary protective vegetation in the sub-alpine regions. The relation of the high country to the low, from the viewpoint of conservation of natural resources, is one which must have keen, intelligent attention from the Commission.”