TROPHY FOR BISLEY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22131, 10 June 1935, Page 11

TROPHY FOR BISLEY

THE OTAGO DEER HEAD REPLY TO MINISTER HOW THE REQUEST CAME [BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION] INVERCARGILL, Sunday 'lit is a matter for regret that the Minister of Internal Affairs was not in Wellington, where he could have had access to the files when he replied to the criticism of his department concerning its refusal to bear the shipping charges on the rod deer head for Bisley," was the comment of the president of the New Zealand Rifle Association, Dr. A. F. Ritchie Crawford, on the Press Association message embodying Sir Alexander Young's statement which was sent from Christchurch on Friday night. "Apparently the Minister made his reply over the telephone, and this may account for the inaccuracies which appear. "In the first place the request for a suitable red deer head for Bisley was made to the New Zealand National Rifle Association by the Department of Internal Affairs, which had received a communication from the High Commissioner stating that Sir Lionel Fletcher wished to have a good trophy from New Zealand for the pavilion. Recognising that Bisley is a Mecca for riflemen within the Empire, the New Zealand Rifle Association decided to comply with the request, and, through the generosity of a Wanaka sportsman, a really good 13-pointer Otago head was secured. In view of the representations made by the Department, of Internal Affairs in the matter, I do not think that the request made by the Rifle Association for assistance !in shipping the head to England was at all unreasonable.

"The question of the deer menace," concluded Dr. Crawford, "is not one with which the National Rifle Association of New Zealand is concerned. Speaking candidly, however, I consider that the statement in the UnderSecretary's letter, that the department could not be a party to encouraging •visits to New Zealand for stalking, seems extraordinary, when the Tourist. Department, by advertising propaganda in England, is striving to bring sportsmen to the Dominion."