NEW POLICY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26474, 30 May 1947, Page 6

NEW POLICY

OTAGO’S WILD LIFE DEGENERATION FEARED AMERICAN MINISTER’S OBSERVATIONS Although New Zealand could offer all the shooting and fishing a visiting sportsman could wish at present, it appeared that this would not be the case in another year or two, commented the American Minister, Mr Avra M. Warren, in an interview with the Daily Times last night. In the past 15 months he had been able to see an appreciable difference in the amount of wild life in the country.

What was needed was an enlightened and enthusiastic body of public opinion behind the intelligent building up of the natural game and fish resources of the country. This interest was to be found in ' Canada, Chile, and America, and could well be emulated in this country.

New Zealanders, said Mr Warren, should realise that there was “ money in game farming,” and by that he meant all game, with the exception of pigs and rabbits, which he classed as vermin. The rabbit menace would have to be recognised as such and not regarded as an additional source of farm income. The commercial interests were moving in on certain types of big game fish, and the trout and salmon in the rivers needed more food. The “ fishing habits ” of many fishermen would have to be overhauled, for the number and quality of the fish taken from New Zealand’s rivers were on a declining spiral. A similar destructive sporting policy to New Zea-landex-s had been followed in America until about 15 years ago, he said, but this had now been remedied. Afforestation and reafforestation were necessary to provide food for the game and fish, continued Mr Warren, so that a natural balance between trees and grasses could be struck. There would have to be a more effective control of grazing, rabbits would have to be eliminated, and game stocks would have to be built up without, of course, allowing wildlife to become a pest. Mr Warren was enthusiastic over Central Otago as a shooting ground. In the shoots which had been arranged for .him during the past few days, 138 chukor were shot, against the 101 shot in his visit here last year. Quail, he said, were scarce, and he considered that a closed season would be necessary for three years to bring quail back in quantities. This would have to be in conjunction with a drive against hedgehogs, which took the quail eggs and young. Chukor seemed to be able to look after themselves—they nested in cliff faces where the hedgehogs could not get at them, and consequently had remained plentiful. “ There is no doubt that Central Otago has a tremendous future.” commented Mr Warren. He had been amazed at the effects of a little irrigation, and it seemed obvious that the key to the area’s economy was farming—putting things back into the land, instead of taking out of it. “ When the placer miners and the dredges liad finished in Central Otago I understand that the Chinese came in to pick the tailings over,” he remarked. “When they finished, they turned into fruit merchants, and they found the ultimate fortune from Central Otago. Those orchards are really magnificent.” Mr Warren intends to return to the back country of Otago next week, when he will make a brief shooting trip into the fiord district seeking wapiti, and into the region beyond Te Anau for stag and pig.