SEALS NEAR DOMINION.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 July 1923, Page 5

SEALS NEAR DOMINION.

RAPID INCREASE AT ISLANDS. FUTURE FUR INDUSTRY. (By Wire— Parliamentary Reporter.) Wellington, Last Night. According to a statement made in the Legislative Council this afternoon seals are rapidly increasing in numbers in the vicinity of New Zealand. Sir Francis Bell said that after the war the present Government insisted on the refusal of all permits to kill seals. The resuluts had been extraordinary, and the number of fur seals had increased amazingly. The Campbell Islands had been leased for pastoral purposes and there were some inhabitants there looking after sheep. There were no inhabitants of the Auckland Islands and none on the Antipodes. Representations were made to the Government that Norwegians and other roamers of the seas were sealing in those parts, and that the seals were being slaughtered. An arrangement was come to whereby the lessee of Campbell Island and his men were appointed custodians of the sealing grounds, in return for which they were allowed 400 bull seals per year. The arrangement had been an excellent one, and the seals were increasing at a great rate. Sir Francis believed the dry was fast coming when the fur sealing industry in New Zealand would be very valuable. He was sorry to say there had been practically no return of the seals to the West Coast Sounds, but he believed that would come. A great deal had been done since the unfortunate mistake of ten years ago of letting the seals be destroyed.