RED DEER AND SETTLEMENT.

Southland Times, Issue 19656, 5 October 1922, Page 2

RED DEER AND SETTLEMENT.

To the Editor. Sir, —In your issue of September 14 I had the pleasure of reading the Southland Acclimatisation Society’s discussion on the damage done by the Red Deer. I think very few of the Society’s members know what they are talking about when they try to make the public believe that the deer do very little damage, and if Mr G. Moffett believes all he said at the last meeting it is high time the Society had him struck off lheir Council and one who knows more about the doings of these animals put in his place. In the first place Mr Moffett says the estimated revenue from the coming season’s deer licenses will be about £238. What is that to the damage done to the settlers; even if you doubled that amount it would not cover their losses. Secondly, Mr Moffett hinted that the petition that was sent in to the Government was started by the Forestry Department. That is absolutely incorrect. I drew up the petition at the request of several of the settlers and started the ball rolling before knowing anything about the Forestry Department’s moves. Thirdly, Mr Moffett says the deer does no harm to the bush in Southland. I would like to ask Mr Moffett if ho was ever in the bush when in thc Lillburn district several years ago during the deer stalking season. If he was and did not sec thc damage done to the young trees he must bejvery short-sighted Perhaps he did not hawe a deer stalker’s license to enable him tojgo into the bush. He also says the deer do not- graze in the bush, but in the high country most of the year. What is the good of trying to tell us that. The bush in the west Waiau is just crawling with these vermin all thc year round and they arc doing a good deal of damage too, but that is the Forestry Department’s business, not the settlers. 1 may mention here that I had a member of the Forestry Department from the North Island staying with me a short time ago and we spent a day in the bush taking photos of the different kinds of trees killed by the deer. This gentleman has been in most, parts of New Zealand doing the same thing, and I hope when the photos are put beiore them (as they will be short-

ly) thc Government will proclaim the deer vermin the same as rabbits. Speaking later at the Society’s meeting Mr Moffett said that if the faimers had come to the Society instead of petitioning the Government they would have been granted leave to shoot deer for ten months in the year. Speaking personally, I was sick and tired of complaining to the Society and members of the Society. 1 derided to go to headquarters. When complaining to Mr Moffett of the damage done to my turnips he told me to tie my dogs around them. One of my neighbours lost a valuable dog this year while driving the deer off his turnips. A stag turned on the dog and killed it. Another neighbour lost a draught foal and I, myself, have seen a boy of 13 years of age knocked down by a stag and badly shaken. Yet we are told by the Society members that the deer do no damage. In concluding, on behalf of the West Waiau settlers. I hope that, at the Society’s next meeting the true sports( there must be some in the Society) will see that the settlers get fair play and take it into their own hhnds and proclaim the deer a pest and take all restrictions off them, before the Government do it for them. The settlers will not and cannot afford to let this matter rest till they carry the day. When all is said and done, who are the backbone of the country, who keep the ball rolling? Is it the farming community or is it the leisured few who go deer stalking? I am, etc. A. S. GARDNER. Lillburn, October 2.