“DEER A MENACE”

Southland Times, Issue 25306, 8 June 1935, Page 6

“DEER A MENACE”

PROTEST ANSWERED EXPLANATION BY MINISTER “NO INTERFERENCE WITH STALKERS” (Per United Press Association.) Christchurch, June 7. An explanation' of a statement made by the Department of Internal Affairs to the National Rifle Association of New Zealand that the Department cannot be a party to encouraging anyone to come to New Zealand for deer stalking, was given by telephone to-day by the Minister of Internal Affairs, Sir Alexander Young. The Minister answered a protest which was made by deer stalkers in Invercargill reported in a Press Association telegram. “If the people' in New Zealand want deer stalking we shall not interfere with them,” the Minister said, “but we are not going to hold hundreds and thousands of acres for sportsmen. We are destroying deer because they are to the detriment of settlers on high country, and a menace to the safety of the people on the plains. Sportsmen from abroad will not destroy the deer; all they want is one or two good heads. 1 was in deer country last year and saw hundreds of deer which would have been ignored by sportsmen.” Sir Alexander said that the Department had received a letter- from the National Rifle Association of New Zealand stating that the President of the National Rifle Association of Britain had written asking for a 13-pointer deer head to be secured in Invercargill and sent to England. The New Zealand body had asked the Department to take delivery of the head in Invercargill and to pay the shipping charges. The Department had no objection to heads being sent out of New Zealand, but for the Department to pay the shipping charges would be to give the impression that the Government wished to encourage people to come to the country for deer stalking, whereas the main concern of the Department was the speedy destruction of deer.