CONSERVING FORESTS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18161, 8 August 1933, Page 4

CONSERVING FORESTS

WAR ON DEER URGED “So far people in the Waikato appear to have given little attention to deer,” said Mr. E. Phillips Turner, of Hamilton, formerly director of forestry, and flic present president of the New Zealand Forestry League, in discussing the damage done by deer to forests. Deer did not appear to be very destructive in the district as yet, he continued. However, 'they were becoming very numerous in the protected forests of the Kaweka, Kaimanawa, Huiarau, and Raukumara Ranges, and as these forests controlled the discharge of numerous rivers, their strict conservation was of importance to every New Zealander. The speaker advocated the destruction of the deer, and said that to his mind one important measure needed was to deprive acclimatisation societies of their present authority with respect to game animals in New Zealand ’s national forests, parks, and' scenic reserves. The efficient conservation of these reserves could be secured only by State control, and it was the duty of the State to exercise this control unfettered by any outside body, which was not required to have any knowledge of .the most elementary principles of forest management. Concluding, Mr. Phillips Turner expressed the hope that the Minister of Internal Affairs would be afforded the financial means to enable the department to employ a large number of bushmen to wage war against the deer.