PRICE ON ITS HEAD

Southland Times, Issue 19895, 14 June 1926, Page 10

PRICE ON ITS HEAD

THE SHAG CONpEMNED. MENACE TO TROUT. Nineteen years ago it was discovered that shags were responsible for the transmitting of a worm parasite to trout in the Rotorua and Taupo districts, and inducements were offered with a view of reducing the menace, but these do not appear to have had the desired effect. As shags are again reported to be increasing in numbers, the Minister of Internal Affairs (the Hon. R. F. Bollard) announces that his Department is renewing its crusade against the birds by reintroducing the reward of 2s 6d per head for their destruction. “When in June, 1907,” said the Minister, “it was discovered by a scientific investigation that the shag was responsible for the appearance of a worm parasite in some of the trout, the Government commenced action against the birds, and offered to pay Is per head for all birds destroyed within the Rotorua Acclimatisation District. Apparently the bonus was not regarded as remunerative, for comparatively few birds were brought in. A further inducement was given to a number of men by supplying them with free ammunition, but results were still unsatisfactory. Later, men were specially engaged to destroy shaggeries, and a reward of 20s per hundred was offered for shags’ eggs. In 1911 the price paid per head was raised to 2s 6d, with the very satisfactory result that on an average 1000 birds were destroyed annually in the thermal district.” • It was pointed out by the Minister that the results in the past of the raids on the rookeries specially organised by the Department with selected men had proved so poor that they were discontinued, and it was resolved to rely entirely on the bonus system. A further method was adopted by the sending of a departmental officer to the principal shaggeries during the nesting season to destroy as many eggs and young birds as possible. A fair number of birds was destroyed by that process, but the work proved difficult and not particularly successful, as the shas, when disturbed, sought fresh haunts. In 1924 the rate per head of shags killed in the Rotorua and Taupo districts were fixed at Is 6d, but that inducement was not very satisfactory in securing a reduction of the birds. “The Department has reported,” said Mr. Bollard, “that of late the birds again appear to be on the increase, and, as it is stated the price of Is 6d per head does not pay any person to go out shooting them, it has therefore been decided to raise the amount to 2s 6d per head again in the hope that this increase will bear satisfactory results in the war of extermination on these pests. On this occasion the subsidy is also to be extended to shags killed at Lake Waikaremoana.”