ANIMAL PESTS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 98, 13 August 1943, Page 5

ANIMAL PESTS

DEER, PIGS AND OPOSSUMS BAY MEMBER'S LITTLE JOKE, The desire of farmers' to have returned to them .303 rifles that, had been impressed for defence purposes so that they could help to deal with the deer and wild jjig menace in their districts themselves was brought to the notice of the Minister of Internal Affairs, the Hon. W. E. Parry, in the. House of Representatives by Opposition members during the discussion on the estimates of his department. The Minister gave an assurance that the department was working in conjunction with the Army Department with a view to rides, being x'Cturned as soon as possible. Opposition members thanked the Minister for this assurance. He was thanked for' his interest in dealing with the deer and wild pig problems and a tribute was paid to the work that had, been done under the department in the culling of deer in the back country. Mr H. Atmore (Ind. Nelson) said there was a tremendous delay in the fulfilment of promises for the return of the rifles to men who were good shots and were veterans of the last war. It had. been reported in Nelson that .303 rifles that had been impressed were simply stored in ChrLstchurch, that they were not being used for military purposes but were being kept stored up to the detriment of keeping down the rapidly-increasing d.cer menace. The rapid increase in the opossum population in the Dominion was referred to by Mr W. Sullivan (Nat. Bay of Plenty). He considered that some special effort should be made to reduce the numbers of the pest. "If you leave, your window open at night an opossum will immediately step inside and sleep with you." he added amidst laughter. . Mr Parry said the opossum was ;i very fascinating little animal, but in man}* places 1 they had become a pest. Since the commencement of the war pest.s of all sorts had increased and could not be kept down. Farmers' did not have rifles or ammunition. He had done, his best to get supplies both of ammunition and rifles for farmers.