BUSH MENACED BY DEER AND PIGS

Chronicle (Levin), 28 December 1946, Page 4

BUSH MENACED BY DEER AND PIGS

—Press' Association

By Telegraph-

WELLINGTON, Dec. 24. Concern at tlie destruction to native bush by wild lit'c, particularly in tlie Waikaremoana distriet, was expressed by Dr. J. T. Salmou, entomologisfc at Ihe Dontinion Museum. Dr Balmon, with two other members of tlie museum stafl, the -direetor, Dr. W. H. B. Oiiver, and another entomologist, Mr. it. Forster, has returned from ari cxpedition to Waikaremoana. . "The distriet posscsses some of the Dominion's iinest virgin bushland," said Dr. Ralinon, "but if it is continued to be menaced by wild life, it will in time be just a desolate waste. " Dr. Halmon said that the once denso undergrowth ronnd the lake and in other parts of the distriet had either been eaten away by deer or rooted up by wild pigs, botli of whieh were num erous in the area. To complete tlie do struction, opossums had eaten the tops of many large rata and rimu trees, leaving thern to rot. Comparing the bnsh Avith when ho visitod the distriet in 192*7, Dr. Bainton said that it was almost unreeognisable, Little effort had been made to kill off the deer and wild pigs beeause hunters found the terrain too rough to get the carcases out Deer were worst around Mount Panelciri. . Wliile at Waikaremoana, Dr. Oiiver purchased the bones of both a large and a small moa diseovered by Public. Works emplovees near Wairoa. Arran'gements have been made for their transporta tion to the museum. The party diseovered several speeies of plant and inseet life, but the work of identifying and elassifying them has not yet been eompleted. Spiders comprised a large portion of the inseet collection. This is the first time an organised botanical and e*1«,tnologieal survey of the distriet has $£en piade sinee 13-jL when the Itev. William Colenso trekkeu frojn the East Cape to the Waikato