WILD PIGS IN WAIKATO.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20991, 30 September 1931, Page 10

WILD PIGS IN WAIKATO.

SPORT OF FORMER DAYS. VERY CUNNING OLD BOAR. Experiences of wild pigs in past limes in New Zealand are related by a correspondent, Piiillippa Francklyn, in a letter to Country Life. She writes:— " In my girlhood in the Waikato district the wild pigs would come down from thf* ranges and kill and eat the lambs. This was the more strange as these were not tho descendants of true wild pigs, but from the domestic pigs that Captain Cook had presented the Maori with, and, of course, from sonic pigs that may have gono wild and escaped from their owners and taken to the bush. " Great hunts were generally organised in tho spring,, when tho freshly-grow-ing clover attracted the pigs down into the lower country. Of course, this was naturally the sport of pig-sticking, but it was really to get rid ol' as many pigs as possible, it being very difficult to secure them in any other way. These pigs are extremely fierce and an old razor-back would give plenty of sport. They are also very cunning. " At one time a wild boar, known by a curious white mark on his back, was hunted again and again, but always escaped to appear during the next pigslicking. The horsemen would surround him and, as they thought, completely corner him. He was too cunning to charge, but would wait, gazing at the advancing foe, whirl round suddenly and dash at a mad gallop through the ring in the most unexpected place, and the last of him would bo seen dashing off for the shelter of the bush. This particular pig was hunted for several years, but 110 ono ever succeeded in spearing him."