STALKING AND THE RIFLE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 861, 6 July 1910, Page 8

STALKING AND THE RIFLE.

' PRAISE FOR NEW ZEALAND. ' . Turn away from tho bull's-eyo to the field of sport (says the London "Sporting and Dramatic News" in the course of an article on stalking and the. rifle), and there is innovation more: fitted for war, but less well adapted for sport. The New Zealander is nothing, if not thorough. Ho has not only beaten tho world for trout, but easily.'beaten-Britain-'for' red deer, but, not content with this, he has'sought more crosses of the best park blood in England. That can bo looked at fromseveral aspects. Even now the derivation of the original New Zealand 'stock, from deer sent out from Windsor. Park, goes against' the sentiment of stalking them. Of course, many good sportsmen have stalked in New- Zealand with great satisfaction to themselves, but still, very many more hav.e not, and cannot bring themselves to regard the red- deer country there as ono of the wild places of the earth. They say there are wild pig there also, as wild as any German wild boar, but their origin was the sty, and not >voods. _ That is why there is some doubt about the wisdom of crossing wild deer in New Zealand with the Warnham Court 'breed 'of red deer. Obviously the feeding grounds- of New Zealand would support much finer beasts than these, and probably the finest red deer in the world are tho Caucasian stags,-amongst which 40 stone and ■ 20-point stags are not uncommon. It is true that naturalists have given these title to rank'as a species separate : from'red deer,, but, then, so, .they have the wapiti,.and ■ yet those and the British red deer breed together and have fertile offspring. The Caucasian red deer is quite as fine a beast as the wapiti, and is very much more true to the character of European red deer. But, judging from tho way things are going, we doubt whether stalling will continue popular. Sir Charles Ross,has been shooting stags during the past season at from -100 yards to over 524. To those who regard the' actual shot as the least part of the sport, and who _ are all excitement when they get within "speaking distance" of a stag, after an arduous crawl, theso extra long shots may be a- great loss of enjoyment. They am said to be-made possible by a rifle with 3000 foot-seconds velocity, and very Hat trajectory, but.they havo been possible over since the high-velocity rifles have been invented. The question is not whether they are possible, but whether ■there is sport in shooting deer at a quarter of a mile, and more, away from tho "stalker.'' Does this word imply nothing that is worth keeping, that the rifle lias made most of tho "stalk" unnecessary? Hero are conditions suitable to war, but divorced from Bislcy,. where the image of war should prevail as much as possible, and 'where conditions which, applied to sport, may make warriors but not sportsmen. All is not right with the rifle. . ■ ■ ■ -i