RAVAGES OF WILD GOATS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21413, 10 February 1933, Page 17

RAVAGES OF WILD GOATS

MENACE AT MOUNT EGMONT PLEA FOR DESTRUCTION The menace of goats on the Mount Egmont reserve is tho subject of a letter to the Taranaki Daily News from Mr. A. H. Gibson, of Ngaio, Wellington, an early settler of Taranaki. Mr. Gibson says he considers tho danger of goats in the reserve is so serious that the farmers would be well advised to pny a levy of, say, 2s 6d a head to have the goats immediately and thoroughly destroyed.

"I read lately a report concerning the reported herds of goats in the bush around Mount Egmont and tho Pouakai Ranges near by," says Mr. Gibson, -"and with, great concern I write, as one of the early settlers in Taranaki, to warn settlers of what I have seen in other parts as the result of these animals' activities. It has been well said that 'God made the forest and the devil invented the goat.' Certainly there is some solid foundation for the assertion.

"I have seen in the South Island hundreds of acres of bush ruined, not merely temporarily, but permanently, by these destructive pests. Standing trees they destroy by gnawing the bark all around, so that acres of dead bush alone are left, and the seed-bed of tho forest they ruin by tramping it hard, and cropping off any seed that may perhaps germinate. They are quite capable in less than a generation, if left unchecked, of destroying practically the whole of tho forest yet left around the mountain. It is unnecessary for me to point out what this would mean to dairy farmers in a light, volcanic soil such as Taranaki's.

"A denuded mountain spells dry rivers, choked river beds, floods, destruction of pasture lands by erosion and by deposit of stones and clay, etc., a restricted rainfall and failing pastux'es. The denudation of bush has been going on for years (as an instance) along the course of the Manawatu TCiver, and I have witnessed acres of rich, fertile soil eroded by flood waters and lost for ever—rich pastures covered deep with shingle and mud, and the whole river course diverted by shingle. "In tho Southern Alps great stretches of mountain and high lands havo been rendered useless by erosion due to the depredations of goats, chamois, thar, deer of various kinds, and other destructive agents brought here by the mischievous activities nf acclimatisation societies; and this process of destruction is still continuing."