RAVAGES BY DEER

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 813, 6 November 1929, Page 7

RAVAGES BY DEER

KING COUNTRY PROTESTS TURNIP CROPS DAMAGED From Our Own Correspondent TAUMARUNUI, Monday. Efforts that have been made by supporters of the Auckland Acclimatisation Society for the protection of the deer herd in the Central Ivins Country, confined mainly to the Taringamofu Valley, are not being endorsed by settlers in the area concerned. Strong protests are being voiced by farmers who have had crops damaged, and the herd is freely described as a pest that will have to be dealt with at once.

Reports from Auckland that the deer are keeping to the high tussock country, and therefore should be exempted from the removal of restrictions, are not borne out by the facts. Inquiries by a Sun man elicited the information that the deer put in a great deal of time on the lowlands, and very great damage is being done by the animals to turnip and other crops to which they are partial. Recently deer have been noticed in the hills at Matapuna. at Taumarunui’s front door, and it is stated to be quite a common experience for a farmer to have a number of the marauders devouring his turnip crops every night. In view of the difficulties farmers are already contending with, it is argued that this additional nuisance should be done away with.

As things stand at present, if a settler shoots deer he makes himself liable to a penalty of £lO, or equivalent imprisonment. The Acclimatisation Society recently took proceedings against a farmer for shooting an animal on his own land.

As proof that damage is not confined to crops alone, the Sun man was not long ago shown several young Oregon pine trees that had been eaten down by the deer at liberty in the vicinity. Some settlers also complain of the losses caused by the depredations of Californian quail, which are particularly plentiful in certain localities this season. They are very hard on the sowings of new grass seed, and eat practically all the seed as fast as it is put down. The opinion is freely expressed that all restrictions should be removed from the destruction of these birds.