DEER STALKING

Southland Times, Issue 18810, 1 May 1920, Page 8

DEER STALKING

SPORT ON STEWART ISLAND,

TIMARU MEN’S EXPERIENCE,

In conversation with a Thnaru Herald reporter on Tuesday, Mr J. E. Pigott gave a brief account of the deer-stalking trip to Stewart Island, from which he and Mr L. B. James have just returned. Mr Pigott explained that there arc only three red deer stalking blocks on the island, and that there is an area not yet blocked off between Caerfaowl Arm and Pegasus. Last year was the first year in which licenses to kill deer on the island were granted, but those granted then were limited to two. The area above referred to as not yet having been blocked off is for white-tailed Virginian deer. Mr James and himself had gone to the red deer country, having taken No. 1 block, known as Mount Anglem. On reaching the Bluff they crossed to Stewart Island in the tug Theresa Ward, a good sea boat, but very uncomfortable to travel in. The soa was running mountains high, and they had a very rough trip across—the roughest, they were told, that- has been experienced for the past ten years. Arriving at Oban on Thursday, they expected to get straight away for their camp, in a launch, but the weather was so rough that they could not get away till the following Saturday night. It was still too rough for a launch, so they hired a sailing vessel to take them up to Paterson’s Inlet to the mouth of Freshwater Creek. On arrival at the mouth of this river they transferred to a launch to get up the river. They got a fair distance up when the water became shallow, and their launch became grounded at two o’clock in the morning. They could get no further by boat. They were still two miles from their camp, and, after getting a few hours’ sleep, lying in a heap at the bottom of the boat, they covered the remainder of the distance on foot, carrying their belongings with them. It took them a day and a half to pack in and make a comfortable camp. They had Guide Victor Thompson with them; without a guide they would have been lost in the dense bush. Mr Pigott said that, although they were away a fortnight, they had only five days’ actual stalking. The country they were in consisted of a large* flat about three miles wide, extending from the mouth of Freshwafer river to the foot of Ruggedy mountain. It might aptly be described as a quaking bog interspersed by rivers, and streams with boggy banks—extremely bad country to negotiate and too wet for deer to camp in. It was more or less covered with dense manuka. The hills which bound the flat are covered from foot to summit with almost impenetrable bush—ideal as a hiding place for deer, but impossible country in which to stalk. What they had to do was to wait until some deer appeared at the edge of the bush or stalk the few that were occasionally seen on the flat. The bush was mixed, comprising rimu, totara, miro, broadleaf and the beautnful crimsonflowering rata, and magnificent tree ferns in abundance.

Mr Pigott went on to say that in 1918 Mr Moorhouse inspected the deer herds on the island for the Southland Acclimatisation Society, and Mr James and himself could bear out all that wag said in Mr Moorhouse’s report. The deer were very numerous, and well-beaten tracks could be seen from the bush to the various clearings. The deer were first liberated in 1901, six in number, being fawns from the Wairarapa herd. In 1902 they were augmented by twelve from the Warabce Park (Nelson) hen!; and in 1905 two stags and seven hinds —white-tailed Virginian deer —were liberated at Pegasus. The latter, Mr Pigott, explained, are purely bush deer, and come from North America. They are reputed to be the hardest deer to stalk. In size they are between the fallow and the red deer, weighing about a hundred pounds less than the former. Speaking generally, Mr Pigott said that the stalking was disappointing, though he would like to go again and spend sLx or eight weeks there, as he was satisfied that if sufficient time were spent it would be easy to fill the license. Ho would not be surprised if record heads are taken out of the Stewart Bland forest. The majority of the stags which they had seen were small —not strong enough to be able to retain a place with the herds, or old ones past their prime, those being known as “go backs.” They did not see altogether more than a dozen hinds outside the bush by themselves. The best of the deer were in the bush, where there was magnificent feed for them ; and it was because of the abundance of feed that he predicted record heads from the herd on the island. It was noticeable that the deer had overgrown hoofs, indicating that they had not the dry, stony country which was necessary’ to keep their hoofs pared down. Mr James had secured a very fine head (fifteen points) but it was a little past its prime, and had been a very much better head than it was now. A characteristic of the herd was its extremely heavy horn, this being due to the absence of hard winters and the abundance of feed. All the young deer were as fat ■as butter. It- was going to be a greet deerstalking niece in the future, though some improvements were needed, seen, for mts nee, as the burning of the scrub en the fiats. Mr Pigott further remarked that the whole island was a forest reserve for the preservation of the native flora and fauna There was abundance of grey duck, teal, snipe, pukaki and white-breasted shags there as well as plenty of wild pigs. In the bush were to he seen birds in plenty—kakas, fern birds, parakeets, tomtits, bell birds, mockymocks, robins, wild pigeons, etc. | On (he return journey they spent a day j fishing, at Oban a party of ten of them- - I and he had never before seen such fishing, j it wa-- simply a case of putting out a line j and pulling it in immediately with as many i fish as there were hooks on the line, trumpeter, bluecod and krnki being the pun- | Opal kinds caught. Stewart island was an ; ideal holiday resort. When (hey were there j all the hotels and boarding houses were fully | hooked up, but few people were (here, be- j cause of (he influenza .'care, one man hav- ; mg died from it on the ish’.r.d. |