POISONING PIGS

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 60, Issue 4333, 20 September 1950, Page 11

POISONING PIGS

METHOD NOT APPROVED STATE FOREST AREAS OPINIONS OF COUNCILLORS A proposal that thie method of poisoning wild pigte instead tof appointing permanent hunters, be used for 'tihieir destruictaon was. placed before 'the September meeting of the Ooromaandeil County Council in a letter from the conservator of forests. Cr S. H. Le Roy-Dyson said that poisoning was not altogether satisfactory. A bullet was the surest method of getting rid of the pigs. In the discussion prhich took place it was pointed out that hunters on private property could not go into State forest areas and consequently pigs found breeding grounds in forest areas and came out on to cultivated land, doing considerable damage. Areas left for regeneration, which from time to time got burnt, also a menace and harbour for wild pigs. Cr Dyson said that he had shot a large boar only a chain away from his house, at 9 o’clock one night, right in on his 1 dairy pasture. There

were deep tracks where pigs went in and out of the forest and yet the departments officers said the pigs Were from private land. “I don’t 'think the forestry is giving us a fair deal,” he continued. The forest & » breeding ground for the phJ« One man was offering 5/- a pig to shooters; iwhat position is he in to pay that price? I’m not talking so much for now, but in four or five years time farmers, who are producing now will have to leave their farms because the pig’s will drive us out. The ratepayers should not have to pay people to destroy the pigs, there should b$ permanent shooters to destroy .them,” said Or Le ißoy-Dyson. It was proposed by Cr J. H. Reddy and seconded by Cr W. J. Hare “That it has been found that poisoning has not been effective in this district and the statement that wild pigs are on the increase on private property is not wholly correct. If applied to the whole county, whereas they are definitely increasing on Crown lands. The resolution was carried.