ASSET OR MENACE?

Wairarapa Age, 19 March 1925, Page 7

ASSET OR MENACE?

LEER I..CK COUNTRY. FAI ..S’ INTERESTING OBSERVATIONS. Mr E. Cresswell drew the attention of members of the Masterton branch of the Fanners’ Union at their meeting yesterday to an anomaly in the instructions on deer stalking licenses issued by the Wellington Acclimatisation Society, which had a misleading effect, but also opened up a very big question. He stated that the license allowed holders to shoot stags over 10 points, but did not inform stalkers that the herds were being thinned out and that the stags were not now growing 10point heads. Speaking with years of experience, he considered that there was hardly a stag in the whole Wellington district worth shooting. The difficulty was, however, that the Government prevented the introduction of fresh blood which would keep the standard up, and on the breeding farm at Paraparaumu the Acclimatisation Society intended to destroy all the surplus animals. With the action of the Government in refusing to allow stags to be introduced it was absurd to treat a man as a poacher for shooting one without a license An experiment was’ to be tried, ho said, of freezing the meat and sending it Horae, but he had ..not much confidence in it, as the deer bred there wore reds, whoso beef was not to be compared with the fallow 7 , the ideal venison deer.

In debating the point whether the deer was an asset dr a menace on the back country, the speaker instanced his farm at Stronvar, where tutu, a highly poisonous plant to eattle, was almost entirely eradicated by deer, on which it had no effect. He agreed that they did do damage to young plantations, but held that they had their benefits on the rougher back country. In the Government reserve near Marlborough, deer and wild goats had cleaned the bush bare for a distance of 10 or 11 feet from the ground, and if the larger trees were ringbarked and grass s/wn it would be an ideal sheep run.

Mr. T. R. Barrer: The Government has framed its policy oh the action of the Forestry Department, which has sworn a war on deer.

Mr Cresswell: Yes, but if the herds are being thinned out and the heads deteriorating in quality, why is the breeding farm being continued if the liberation of stags is prohibited? I think the Acclimatisation Society is failing in its purpose.

Mr. A. J. Percy: A waste of money, absolutely. On the suggestion of the secretary (Mr. Watson), it was decided to bring the matter before the next meeting of the Martinborough Blanch, where several local deer stalkers ean*give their opinions. Mr Cresswell and. Mr C. I. Dasent, secretary of the Wellington Acclimatisation Society, are to be invited to attend. Mr Cresswell added that he had brought the matter up merely to get an expression of opinion whether deer were worth while or not. Ho considered that if they were limited, in number their damage would be minimised, and there would be better heads. It was the scarcity of food among the thousands of poor animals that caused them to ravage around and consequently cause damage to young .trees and crops.