LAND AND WATER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2924, 30 March 1910, Page 37

LAND AND WATER.

x jpEKR-STALKIXG* GRAVE ABUSES IN THE NORTH. (FeOM OUB -OWN COBKESPONDENT.) WELLINGTON, .March" 24. The stalking season has not opened - yet, but the crack of the rifle is not an uncommon sound in the deer country at the back of Martinborough, according to a gentlemen who visited the locality quite recently. He states that it is common knowledge that stalking is commenced in the district weeks before the season opens, and he gives that as the reason for the poor sport usually experienced .by those who stick to the laws governing the sport. The chief burden of this .gentleman's complaint is not the abuse of the law as regards the season : it is something a deal more serious and something that the Acclimatisation Society might well look into. The allegations made by him concern what he says has grown into quite a business—i.e., the securing of head skins with wnich to cover the heads shot by those stalkers who will not take the trouble to cut the head off low down on the neck and skin it there' and then, fcut rather cut it off high wp the neck >just under the base of the skull," depending on someone else to supply the full head skin for the mounting process. This is stated to have proved to be quite a practice in the Wairarapa. It means Ahat for every head mounted two stags ihave to be shot. This is put forward as a reason for the alleged degeneracy ■of the heads in the Wairarapa. The few •good heads that may be found when the season opens soon fall to' the guns, and to supply the skins for mounting them six qr eight pointers are shot, a process which naturally limits the niimber of 12-pointers ior the following season.