Is There a Deer Menace?

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 7192, 26 June 1933, Page 8

Is There a Deer Menace?

STRONG DENIAL BY ACCLIMATISATION SOCIETY Tho repeated suggestions that have originated from various sources that the deer liberated in forest areas in various parts of New Zealand are menacing the existence of theso few remaining bush areas was given a spirited rebuttal at tho meeting of the Manawatu sub-committee of the Wellington Acclimatisation Society on Saturday evening. Mr. W. J. Haase, a representative of tho council of the Wellington Society, strongly denied the allegation that the deer threatened the very existence of the forests.

“Tho council is going into the matter very fully this year,” stated Mr. Haase, “and at the largo reserve at Ilauraki there is a large forest area. The Government claims that the bush is being gradually destroyed by deer and other wild stock at liberty there. However, tho forest is a bush one with very little undergrowth and it has been, on the authority of many deerstalkers who frequent tne Ilauraki, m that condition for at least 20 years past. It therefore appears that the allegations against tho deer are a little belated. Other stock, with the exception of goats, arc equally blameless in this respect, and the wild pigs oven exert a beneficial effect.

“There has been a great deal of criticism levelled at tho society as regards tho alleged depredations of deer, and consequently any information on the matter will be welcomed by the council. Any details which will substantiatc or deny these allegations will be of great help. We seem to be up against strong opposition and the Department of Internal Affairs is firmly against us. We have been blamed for the whole condition of the forests and wc have got to take some definite steps cither to prove that the deer are responsible, or else to be in a position to deny the allegations. As far as our own society is concerned, we have definite records proving that the deer arc not responsible for the position,” added the speaker. Mr. R. Priest supported Air. Haase’s expression of opinion, stating that the supposed menace was virtually nonexistent, and goats were the only animals likely to destroy tho bush. Tho deer menace was of absolutely no consequence in the Manawatu area. Mr. Priest said that from observations made on recent trips, he could say the deer were not doing any damage at ail. They were no longer common in the Tararuas, and it was seldom that more than six or seven could be sighted in one day.

The ranger to the sub-committee, Mr. T. Andrews, mentioned that ten years ago the landowners at Ilauraki were ready to gaol a man for shooting a hind. (Strong representations were made to have the regulations modified and finally it was mado lawful to kill the animals and now they were practically cleaned right out and the stalking was su poor that it hardly warranted a visit there. It was now difficult to get a few heads instead of the hundreds obtained a few years ago. Tlio few remaining deer could not by any stretch of imagination he thought to constitute a menace.

Replying to some of the extravagant statements made as regards the precalence of deer, Ranger Andrews said they were entirely unfounded. Recently a statement was published by a party that had visited the tops that they had seen literally hundreds of ueer. He personally had questioned those responsible for the statement, and they had reduced their estimate first to 20 and finally to eight. Mr. Priest pointed out that the missing trampers, during the whole of their 17 days on the tops, had sighted only three deer. Other members were equally emphatic that deer in many localities were now far less numerous than formerly; in fact, in some places that they used to frequent in largo numbers, it was now difficult to secure a kill of venison.