DEER-STALKING IN NEW ZEALAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 2928, 27 April 1910, Page 58

DEER-STALKING IN NEW ZEALAND.

DETERIORATION OF THE WAIRARAPA HERD. INTERVIEW WITH AN ENGLISH STALKER. NEW ZEALAND HEADS FOR SALE IN LONDON. (From Our Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, April 19. Thoug-h there have been various statements in the press recently to the effect that the deer-stalking season in the North Island has been an excellent one, experienced local stalkers are well aware that such is not the case, and on the contrary the Wairarapa herd has been rapidly deteriorating during the past four or five years, with the result that this year very few heads worth shooting have been secured. These facts are confirmed by an •- -p-rtsman from England, Mr

Senior, whom I have just interviewed on j the subject. ! Mr Senior, who has stalked for many years in Scotland, has also had previous experience of New Zealand stalking, both in the South and in the North Islands. This year he has returned to New Zealand for the stalking, and his views after an absence of four years are worth putting on record. In company with Mrs .Senior, who is as keen and enthusiastic a stalker as her husband, he has just returned from the deer country on the east coast beyond-Martinborough, and though he was camped in a good locality on the Cape River, near the Government Reserve, he has come back a disappointed man. He was out for seven days, and :' saw a great number of small stags and' very many hinds, but during the whole time he never saw one stag that he really ! could care to shoot. On one occasion, leaving- their rifles behind them, the party made an excursion into the Government Reserve with a view to seeing what the stags there were like. They tramped from 6 in the morning till 6 p.m., and covered a large area, but they saw only | one stag with a good head. It was a fair "royal." They saw a very large ' number of small stags and many hinds, also a few malformed heads. During the whole day Mr Senior did not see one stag that he would care to shoot. He also found the headless body of one stag that had actually been shot within a day or two in the Government Reserve. From all he could gather he is convinced that the Government sanctuary is regularly poached. The day before he got I into camp there had been eight shots , heard in the reserve. Taking- it all • round, Mr Senior saw just about as many stags and hinds as he saw four years ago, but whereas on that occasion he could have shot at least 12 stags with good heads, on this occasion, as already stated, he could not have secured on© good head. As a matter of fact, he only troubled to bring down one stag—a fairly good 10-pointer. He attributes the present condition of things to poaching and the fact-, that the old hinds and the weedy stags are not shot out, but are allowed to perpetuate their species. Nearly all the good heads are shot, out by poachers or by people with a rifle and a license who are not sportsmen, but simply bag the good heads for sale. These people, it is well known, mark down the good stags, shoot them, secure the heads, and " plant" them until they have an opportunity of getting them away unseen. The only remedy for this kind of illicit sport, in Mr Senior's opinion, is to put up the license fee to £5, and to have strict supervision of the Government sanctuary. At present there is no supervision at all, and the " sanctuary " is quite a misnomer. To show that there was a trade being done in stags' heads, Mr and Mrs Senior pointed to an advertisement in a recent copy of the London Daily Mail, in which it was stated that Maori curios and stags' heads were for sale <at a certain place. The country over which the WairaTapa herd roams is, Mr Senior says, the finest deer country he has ever seen, and there was no reason why with proper supervision and culling the stags should not grow big heads. There was good grass all the year round, the climate was not rigor jus, and there was excellent shelter. Under present conditions the herd must continue to deteriorate, and the time and money spent by the stalkers who came from abroad, hoping to get three or four good heads, is so much time and money wasted. Reverting to the question of poaching , and the illicit trades in stags' heads, Mr Senior pointed out that the increase of the license fee to £5 would provide further revenue that would enable better supervision to be made against poaching. In addition, those taking 1 part in the sale of heads, both buyer anfl seller, should be heavily fined for breaches of the law.

Unless the matter is taken in hand, and taken in hand soon and seriously, the reputation that New Zealand has so justly earned throughout the world for its wonderful stag-shooting will be.altogether a thing of -the past, and wealthy sportsmen from abroad will give it the go-bye in favour of other countries, such as Canada and Africa, Mr Senior is a man who. evidently knows what he is talking about, and it is to be hoped that the authorities will pay some heed to his words ere it be too late.

RAKAIA STAGS' HEADS.

MEASUREMENTS AND WEIGHTS. The stags' heads shot by Dr Mcorhouse, the Hon. H. F. Wigram, and Mr H. J. Boswick. in the Rakaia Gorge, are on view at the Government Tourist Office in Chri-st-church, and have (says the Press) attracted e lot of attention.. Dr Moorhouse's "royal" is a great head, the weight of beam being exceptional even for a Rakaia. stag. The lower tines are the moat evenly developed of any head yet shot in this herd, for, as a rule, the bay tines are either absent or deficient. Mr Wigram's 14-pointer shows great palmation on one horn, and it has. also a back development that is attributed by authorities to good feed conditions. This development is ohi the right horn, as is usually the ease in such instances. Mr Berwick's 11-pointer has very long and even, tops, and the bo:r,ns are nicely bowed. Mr Beswick also shot a small 10-pointer, and as this is a typical Nelson head, it is believed to be that of a stag from that herd liberated some years ago among the Rakaia deer. This head may be taken as a good illustration of the mistake that it often made of liberating a young stag as a change of blood before ascertaining what kind of head he will grow and be liable to transmit to his progeny. Th© heads were measured' and weighed on Friday, under the supervision of Dr Mcorhousj and Mr Moon, of the Tourist Department, and th© following are the particulars: Dr Moorhouse's " Royal.'"—Length, 46i inches; spread, 39 inches; span between beams, 34 inches; circumference of beam above bay tines v 7 inches; coronets, 104 inches; weight, 231 b; length of brow tines, inches; girth of brow tines, 5£ inches. The Hon. H. F. Wigram's 14-pointer. Length, 38i inches ; spread, 40" inches; span between beams, 30 inches; circumference of beam above bay tines, bk inches; coronets, 9|jd inches; weight, 191 b. Mr H. J. Berwick's 11-pointcr.—Length, 45i inches; spread, 38i inches; span between beams, 30 inches; circumference of beams above bay tines, 6 inches; coronets, 10 inches; weight, 181 b ; length of top tines, 19i inches and 18 inches. There is also on view in th© Tourist Office the handsome 14-po.int head shot by Mr E. Harckastle in the Dingle, North Otago. which is- interesting as showing the difference in type between the heads of North Otago and those of the Rakaia Gorge. A 14-pointer and a " roval " ehot by Mr M. A. H. Fell in the Hopwood, Hunter Valley, Lake Hawea, are also shown. Mr Fell also secured another "royal" and a 10-pointer. Messrs R., W., and C. Hay have returned from their deer-stalking trip in North Otago (says the Press), having been camped at the Big Basin in the Lower Dingle. Owing to a heavy snowstorm last week the pack horses were unable to take out their camp equipment and heads, and they had to be left till the snow clears off the ranges. ' The party reports that deer are very numerous, 300 head having been seen in one day, but the stags were very inferior, and it was with difficulty that the stalkers could find anything worth shooting. Messrs W. Bond and H, Elworthy, who were camped in Watson's Gully, off the Ahuriri Gorge, have also returned, having secured some good heads, including a fine royal each. Mr Bond's royal is a very heavy head, weighing 17-£lb, though this is not the heaviest that has come out of North Otago forest. A 14-pointer, shot by the Rev. W. C. Oliver in the Dingle three years ago, weighed 191 b, and some of the Hunter and Makarora heads must have weighed close on 201 b.