IMMENSE DEER FLOCKS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 19009, 9 May 1924, Page 5

IMMENSE DEER FLOCKS.

CAUSE HUGE LOSSES. URGENT NEED FOR SEVERE GULLING. HUGE ECONOMIC WASTE. The urgency of far more severe cubing among the deer herds was emphasised at the Rotary Club luncheon recently, when Rotarian Press referred to the fact that in certain areas from 1000 to 2000 deer were shot every year but they still kept on increasing. In some districts the farmers suffered great losses owing to the feed they consumed, for a deer would each as much as several sheep. But although the deer were sb jt down the farmer was not allowed to market the meat. It. was commonly claimed that the hides were wortle&a, but an inspection of the specimens there that day was convincing that here was a huge economic waste. There were several beautiful skins which had been cured, and the markings were fully preserved, and all were of a size which would enable them to be used as rugs or for other purposes. The hide alone in some cases was over quarter an inch thick. OPEN SEASONS ADVOCATED. Rotarian Press expressed the opinion that the time had arrived when the Government should do away with licenses in certain areas, throwing them open for doer to be shot, permission given for the meat to be marketed, and some use .be made of the skin. Such large numbers of deer were damaging farms and causing great loss in the forests by the injury they did to young trees, and one farmer had stated that he could carry 1000 more sheep* on his farm if he could get rid of the deer. Mr. H. Mclntosh Ellis, Director of Forestry, later stated that there were something like 300,000 deer in the Dominion and the numbers were increasing by thousands every year. The damage they did was enormous, and the numbers ought to be reduced and those killed turned to commercial account.