DEER MENACE

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVI, Issue 23014, 4 October 1944, Page 7

DEER MENACE

Serious Results Foreseen The highly destructive effect of browsing animals, such as deer and chamois, on the high country of New Zealand was mentioned at a meeting of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce by Mr Sinclair Carruthers, whe expressed alarm at the way in which the fertile soil of the country was being washed down into the rivers. “These animals destroy our alpine growth, which cannot be replaced by anything but alpine growth,” he said. “By denuding the high country tlje rapid fall of water to the lower country will wash the top soil of that country into our rivers. The deer are eating out the alpine growth. Their rate of increase is estimated at some 150,000 a year, and the greatest number ever culled in one year was 40,000. If we don’t do something to save that growth on our top country we will eventually affect our hydro-electric installations by erratic supply of water and eventually perhaps endanger the generating plants as our river bottoms rise. The levee work on the Mississippi should be our warning.”