WILD GOAT MENACE

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 24 May 1928, Page 3

WILD GOAT MENACE

POWER BOARD APPREHENSIVE. NEED FOR PROTECTIVE MEASURES. DEPUTATION TO MINISTER OF CROWN That wild goats may prove a menace to the prosperity, and even the existence, of a power board is a. contingency which would not occur, to many, but at Opunake yesterday the Alinister of Lands and the Alinister of Agrieul tine were approached by a. deputation from the local power board with a request that they assist the Mount Egniout Park Board to exterminate wild goats. The chairman (Air G. Goodwin) saul that the very existence of the power board and of the dairying industry rested on the preservation of the mountain reserve b.y the extermination of the goat pest AL- J. S. Tosland .said that the beard was concerned more particularly with the economic position: They had had experience during the past summer of the results of dry weather, and they could well imagine what would be the effect as regards rainfall if the mountain were denuded of its forest. The power board desired to urge that the mountain reserve be protected from all menaces. If a fire sweat an area of bush in which the itreeisi had previously been stripped of bark by goats, the results would be disastrous. He could not .suggest the means tho Government should take to exterminate- the pests, hut xne board did urge upon the Government to give the matter its earnest consideration, as the problem was a. vital one to the board. . Tina Hon. O. J. Hawken: Does anybody know liow many goats are estimated to be at large ? A membrr of the deputation: I bey a're spreading rapidly. Air Tosland: They are working their way round the mountain. Aly personal view is that tracks should be cut to allow hunters to get into the hush. r £hey wanted money in order that men might bo employed ,to go after the animals. The Hon. A. D. McLeod : Are farmers using wonts to clear their land cl pests? Mr Tosland: No.

Mr McLeod said that in some places farmers were using goats to clear blackberry, and in such cases they were something of an asset. He was afraid they would have the farmers up against- them if they tried to pass legislation _orohi biting the keeping of goats. He. would like to know how far the power board’s interest went in this matter. AVa.s the board prepared to assist in the matter of finance? Air Tosland: We realise that this is a, question which lias to be considered in relation to our maintenance, and we have asked the Auditor-General', if we have authority to contribute.

A POLICY WANTED. A],,- McLeod said that there must bo a policy at the bagk of any scheme to exterminate the menace. No Government could 'allow capital charges against what was really a maintenance charge. In all .sound undertakings maintenance must ho met out of revenue. A farmer or a Government which borrowed to moot maintenance charges would soon be bankrupt. Air Hawken had already suggested what seemed to him a good basis for’ a. scheme —they should devote the revenue obtained from such animal® as opossums to the extermination of such pests as gonits. 'Air Hawken: AVe do nor get the. opossum money at present—that goes to the board. Air McLeod : No. bur we will, have to go into. that. I will have to go into the matter of permanent sn,sidles for the upkeep of the park. The applications wo have had ru.u into a doa.l oi money, and: we will hn.vo to discuss this question in Wellington before Parliament meets. I want to see if our contributions oa.n bo based on a £ for £ subsidy of local bodies and other contributions. I want to try to work out a scheme. It may call for capital expenditure in the earlier stages, hut after that it must pay its own way. J am not very enthusiastic about putting tracks into the bush. There is only one way of exterminating goats, in my opinion—get in and get alter them. Mr A. Collins said that lie did not think extermination would prove such a big job once they bad got. the right class”of men, familiar with the country and possessed of good clogs. Air Tosliuid said that they did not suggest that tracks should he out lor the purpose of driving the goat-s out, but for the purpose of making the hush more accessible to hunters. Mr AV. L. F. Chaimbens said that the board did not know much about the details, hut the deputation wa.s .present to .support the applications of those whom the Ministers had already heard on the .subject and of those who would be approaching them later in the course of the tour. Air McLeod said the Government had no revenue from its native bush reserves it could set aside for improvement works, but lie won't! like, to .see some revenue derived and subsidised out of the Consolidated Fund. He was of opinion (that Egmont Park should have some definite finance. Air Tosland said that lie was firmly of opinion that the Government should act on the priniciple that preservation of for,eats should be one of the first charges on the Consolidated Fund. Mr Hawken said that revenue could bo derived from the big national parks. There were some people who said dogmatically. without knowing much about it, ‘‘Keep your hands off the busli,” hut in some cases it would he possible to run commercial forestry alongside the preservation of forests. He instanced a case where 60,000 acres had been set aside as a reserve. Much of this' was 'in .scrub and he was of opinion that it would be better to have 30,000 acres of native forest and the remainder a. commercial forest than to leave it in its i present state. “We can’t keep these parks out of the Consolidated Fund lor ever,” Mr Hawked said, and added that ]io whs nib tho q>r-esflori L tiuiio into the possibilities of converting goal/ and deer skins into cash. The Government was hunting lor .someone to buy these skins and make it a. commercial possibility. “I don’t know that salt licks' won’t catch goats,” said Mr Hawken. The Forestry Department, of' which he was Ministerial head, was trying out that system for the extermination of deer and there would bo more information available on that score later. . , Air Goodwin thanked the Ministers lor according them such a patient hearing, and the deputation then withdrew.