The Outlawed Kea.

Hokitika Guardian, 11 August 1921, Page 4

The Outlawed Kea.

EEEECT OF INCH EASED BOUNTY. .Many years ago there was considerable controversy among runholders in the high sheep country in the South Island as to whether the kea "'as a carnivorous bird, tor this species of the hawk trihe was reputed to have a liking for live mutton. Eventually the weight of evidence was hold to he against the ken, ant? he was proclaimed an outlaw. The Government placed a price on the bird’s head, Is bounty being paid out of the Exchequer for the beaks ot the faraii hr. Since then sporadic warfare has been waged against keas throughout Canterbury and Otago, lull the birds are hard to kill, and cartridges are high prices.

lii October of last year, however, the Government decided to pay a bounty of as to any person, producing .beak of & iea. The niort-Mtyy aiirfbhgift ; the birds immediately increased out of all proportion to .the previous year's killings (says the “Dominion”). In point of f.a.efc-Mifice. last. October 'tire- Government ..has. pffcid.-QtEkTfpproximatoly £9OO in bounty on 3500 beaks, and the tally is,last mounting up. ..In-the year. 19192.0, when tin- bounty.of Is obtained, only .€l.O was pajtl ]C.ut-for the destrlicf)ou .of the feathered-pest. . 3 , s ;Obviously all.-the high-country imisUjreys -needed to' porsuad.e .them to undertake the whalesale slaughter of the birds Was/-sufiicient lponetary inducement. iiy shooting ;1 couple of keas each tjay in the week station hands can earn a-gt&d tragt*,' as hi addition to the 1 Government bounty of os, some county cpuneiLsr jyiy aif further stun —in some es 2s, (klM'or' eachy beak- turned in. .j.-Jf the. present rate op,destruction eontintieSf tlu> kea-.sliould long be numbered in the category of the dodo and the .moa. y