MENACE OF DEER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19781, 31 October 1927, Page 10

MENACE OF DEER.

VENISON FOR EXPORT. DISCUSSION OF PROSPECTS. The prospects of building up a profitable export trade in venison, and at the same time keeping in check the deer herds of New Zealand, which are said to be increasing at such a rate as to constitute a menace to feea resources, we discussed in an article in the Wellington Dominion. It is about two years ago since the idea was conceived of turning the deer, which, generaly speaking, ivere becoming a menace, to good account by exporting the meat. as venison to those countries where it is in demand—United States, England and other countries. Orders have been received in New Zealand tor at least 2000 pairs of hindquarters a month m the skin of red and fallow deer and this can be greatly increased if the facilities .for obtaining deer are made available. The most recent estimate places the number oi deer in New Zealand at 500,000, and they increase at the rate of one in three a year, so that to keep them within present bounds they should be killed off at the rate of 150,000 a year at least. But the numbers at the present time are not oeing reduced by more than 50,000 a year, leaving another lUO.O to go on producing at the rate of one in three. The figures of those slaughtered include operations by sportsmen, deerstalkers, and culling. In a very few years the number will easily reach a million. in Britain fallow deer are prelerred lor venison, but the red deer find a ready market in America. For instance, in June last, 10,000 reindeer from Alaska went into Seattle alone, and so great is the demand in the majority of the States that Alaska is looking forward to placing, by 1936, a million pairs ol hindquarters in the United States. Even this vast quantity only lepresents 2 pei cent of the meat consumption of the United States of America. World-wide travellers and sportsmen qualified to speak on the subject regard New Zealand venison as 100 pei cent, better than any other venison on the market The writer says:—"lt the deei are allowed to go on multiplying as indicated in these figures, it does not require much mental effort to see what the consequences may be. On sheep country a deei will eat as much as four sheep, and on cattle land a deei will eat as much in a night as four head of cattle will eat in a day. It is possible foi the deei to be kept within reasonable bounds, still leaving an ampie margin tor the sportsmen and revenue for the acclimatisation societies. By efficient and systematic culling the deei herds improve, better heads, are available, and the more attractive the heads the greater the inducement to the sportsman to try his luck, for ho does not bother about the herds, but will travel many miles for a good head. " Present methods of culling are not efficient enough to keep the deer within present limits sh\ t ! ■<->»,- I - terested in the venison export, but with the limited number they can get under present conditions it makes it very costly. If the numbers were reduced to reason able limits and kept there, another million sheep would find good grazing instead of the deer "On some targe stations where deer exist iti large numbers, it is stated, the owners have been approached with a view to experienced and organised parties be mg sent to thin them out but several have declined to accede to the request, un ]e«jc nntd si mvolM l yi ' ,|! *' ■*' * not be said that station-owners were deliberately farming deer, t but neither were they as a whole doing all that they might to reduce the numbers, either by shooting the deer themselves or allowing others to systematically thin them out."