STOATS AND WEASELS AND NATIVE GAME.

Otago Witness, Issue 2667, 26 April 1905, Page 56

STOATS AND WEASELS AND NATIVE GAME.

TO THE EDITOR

Silt, — T noticed the other day that Mr Thos. Mackenzie had befm instrumental in getting the pow */s that be to prohibit the shooting of paradise ducks this season. Is Mr Mackenzie such a friend of there vile vermin that tho Government has seen fit in its wisdom to allow to overrun this fair land, that lie now wants the paradise duck preserved for their especial benefit? For as sure a 9 Thos. Mackenzie is a member of the' House of Representatives, the stoats and weasels are going to have the lion's share of this as well as all other feathered game inside of the next 10 years. They are slowly, but surely, exterminating cur native ground game in fiord land. They are also raiding the farmers' poultry yards in Otago to an alarming extent, and almost weekly I hear from settlers in the Taieri district; alone that considerable losses arc- taking place, even where extra precautions J«ro taken to keep them out of the fowl runs. Weasels are- also particularly fond of eggs, and will roll them out of the nests and uick them as clean as any schoolboy ionic! do. They have been seen to climb trees and attack the small birds, and if they will do this what chance have the- paradise th.rks against them, nesting, as they do, on the bare ground. That stoats and weasels are increasing to an enormous extent I have personal knowledge. Lately I spent a few days in th-e Catling district, and saw stoats in "particular by the dozen, and that in tbe daytime. One moonlight night I noticed quite a< band of them make an a'.tscl: en about a dozen tame ducks ; but these evidently had been raided before, and as soon as they saw the stoats made a dash for a pond, where I presume they stayed for the night. The settlers in this district were beginning to get quite alarmed _at tho great increase of this pest, predicting that they would soon be worse than the rabbit?, which £>t present they do not eeem to harm. Now, as regards this prohibition of paradise duck, shooting, before taking the extreme steps as advocated by Mr Mackenzie, why did not the authorities get reports from the various acclimatisation societies as to whether it would be in the interest of native bird preservation to make this year a clo-.e one for these canicular ducks?

Shooting men who have given -he matter careful consideration and know, I suppose, a great deal more about the matter than Mr Mackenzie does, have come to tho conclusion that since the introduction of stoats and weasels, to say nothing of the ferrets, our native game is going to be soon swept off the face of tho earth by these vermin, and that it is useless to try and put back the evil day b3 r making close seasons for one or all of "our native birds. If someone cculd find out a way to exterminate the stoats and weasels then I should certainly say make every other year a close one for nathe game, but unless that much-desired object can be attained, then the sportsmen f-hould be allowed to have their yearly shoot as long as the game lasts. I am quite in accord with Mr Mackenzie over pot-hunting sports — or "shooting hogs," a& our Yankee cousins call them — who kill for killing's sake, and leave their game to rot. If the law could be made to reach such I say let it reach them and rule them with a strong arm, as strong as Sandow's ; but to make all sportsmen suffer because a few transgress the rules of sport ie utterly absurd. — I am, etc., Gkeexeb.