DEER STALKERS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXI, Issue 15210, 22 January 1910, Page 8

DEER STALKERS.

It seems to us that Mr Hardcastle has missed tho point of the criticism which he denounces in our correspondence columns this morning as petty and personal. “ Sonox ” did not dispute tho / accuracy of the representations which Sir Hardcastle mado to Sir Buddo the other day concerning the deterioration of the deer herd . under t.he control of the Otago Acclimatisation Society. He simply ’ questioned the propriety of two private gentlemen, without, apparently, any authority from anyone, waiting upon tho Minister and urging him to take the management of the herd out of tho hands of the Otago Society and entrust it to a special board, on which Mr Hardcastle and his colleague would presumably hold seats. Air Buddo evidently imagined that these two gentlemen represented the deer stalkers of Canterbury, and the newspaper reports of their interview with the Minister do not suggest that they said anything to remove his misapprehension. “ Sonex,” We take it, in afraid that tho Otago Society will suppose that the local deer stalkers, who have always been treated with the utmost courtesy by their southern friends, are trying to secure control of the herd themselves. We can see this danger ourselves. Mr Hardcastle has not matters by implying that the Otago Society has shamefully neglected its duties during the past forty years and is not likely to improve the herd till it comes to this part of the country for advice. AA'e wonder what the Canterbury Society woilld think if the Otago anglers waited upon the Minister and told him that the trout in the Avon were so absurdly small and so painfully shy that- a board of southern fishermen should be appointed to look after the river. It probably would protest in much stronger terms than “ Senex ” has employed. Mr Hardcastle's proper course would have been to have conferred with the local stalkers and to have suggested that they should make recommendations to the Otago Society on the subject. We presume that the amenitios of deer stalking are similar to the amenities of other sports, and these certainly do not permit one body of sportsmen to conspire for the overthrow of tho authority of another body. AVe do not doubt Air Hardcastle’s good intentions, hut wo cannot help thinking he has expressed them in a very unhappy fashion.