LOSS OF GAME BIRDS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22867, 23 October 1937, Page 12

LOSS OF GAME BIRDS

LAYING OF RABBIT POISON CARE TAKEN BY DEPARTMENT [by TELEGRAPH —OWN" correspondent] WELLINGTON, Friday The opinion held by many sportsmen that the phosphorated poison used extensively in some parts of New Zealand to kill rabbits has taken considerable toll of game and other birds, is supported by the Minister of Internal Affairs, the Hon. W. E. Parry. Interviewed to-dav,. the Minister said correspondents had written giving instances of dead pheasants and quail having been picked up in the fields, post-mortem examination revealing that they had been poisoned. The laying of rabbit poison was one of the problems the game branch of the Department of Internal Affairs had to face, said Mr. Parry. The matter had already been the subject of much discussion. In some cases it had been possible to have the use of phosphorated poison dispensed with and carrots sprinkled with strychnine substituted. "Naturally," Mr. Parry said, "the Department of Agriculture considers it would be fatal to the work of rabbit control if occupiers of land were confined to any one form of poison, as there are occasions throughout the year when a change of poison must be used." He pointed out that in recent liberations of Californian quail from Otago and of pheasants from the Ngongotaha State game farm, care had been taken to give the birds their liberty in specially-selected areas. "The departmental officers have made special investigations of «reas in which birds were to be liberated, and have selected areas where the birds would receive every protection from sympathetic property - holders and where there would be no rabbit poison," said the Minister.