RED DEER

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 29, 4 February 1913, Page 3

RED DEER

„ - HEADS' DETERIORATISe , . Over twenty years ago' there arrived, in 'Wellington a VJative of the Austrian Tyrol, F. S. Steffan," and- as the '-vessel came, through'' the Port. Nicholson Heads he .was immediately struck with 'the likeness'of the : surrounding country to that of ' his native land. 'He thought of the mountains at home" with their* deer ati'd cbamoix, and our New Zealand ranges did not suffer by the comparison. Yesterday,- when interviewed by, an Evening Post reporter, ' Mr. > Steff an was of precisely the same, opinion. - , - "I, have been ,in tHe Himalayas, Canada, the Sty'rian, and the Austrian Alps and I am sure nothing can compare with the Mount- Cook sub-alpine tracts," he avers. •• Mr.'Steffan is an. admitted' authority i onallappertainipg to the' red deer, for he has spent the best, part of his life amongst 'the .herds, and the roaring of a "royal" is all 'the music he wants for his' ears. , > . j He is now stationed at -Kurow, -North Otago, and he - has brought with him from that. . district a thirteen-pointer head— one of,* the* old Scotch heads which i aie so noticeable in, the Waitaki and surrounding • country. < This ■ is . a , good specimen of the bld^stag of Caledonia with all its symmetry, its weight and spread, and Mr. Steffan is of opinion that heads' like these, which ■ can be found in plenty in 'his district, would be -hard to match in the North Inland. The North Otago district- was originally stocked from the herds of th'e'Earl of Dalhousie, aud the strain hah been kept remarkably fresh to this day. The reason is t not far to seek. ' For "one Ihing this I Nc-rth Otago stock has not the easy existence - that' is the lot of the Waira- ! rapa red deer.- 'They live: in what is really a sub-alj-ine region, and do not enjoy "the privilege of getting food wherever they look for it. "In the winter ! there are heavy falls of snow and it is j then that Nature automatically culls the herds. All the very .old' hinds and stagp j perish in the cold, and thus beasts that would only eat feed and would be of jno profit' to. the Herd ' are weeded out. Two years ago last September Mr. Steffan was sent i out by ' the ' Wailaki Acclimatisation ' Society to inspect their herds.' There was a severe falj of snow at the time' and • in, the vicinity, of the Deep Creek country, where it was particularly ' heavy, he -fbund _ a dozen of more dead ' deer. •On examining them for .bullet wounds he , found that they Were in no wwaty t markjJ .and had not been shot! They were al' very old and had died, from exposure. The member's of "the society ' themselves help on this culling, for -they, shoot .an, average of sixty head a year, all malformed and old animals. Mr. ' Steffan . is^ absolutely, satisfied that, this tract' would be hard, to beat anywhere in the world as deer-country. There is abundance, of, blue tussock for feed' and the herds keep, well above the 4000 .foot 'level .'in the shooting ' seas6n. Their whole environment , tends to make them, hardy and to keep the mobs fit as a whole. , As stalkyig ( country, it is just, as excellent, for there ,is,<nbt too much cover, "arid; it ;,takes a . master ' hand to stalk a wary' stag .when, all there is to hide behind. is .a, snow grass tuft, once, every , little . while.' _. The ' -deer keep well above the,. birch' forests, in the se'asoh,,b'ut'as the ,winter approaches, they come to.the.lbwer and the warmer levels. j Some", like the Tdead,.' ones' seen ' by' Mr. 1 Steffan, fail to -make the passage to the I plains. M This/, ohoioe of .environment, r then, makes them' more difficult qf access, and., a stalker . has .to ' be ' content ' to ' combine more than a 'spice of mountaineering I with .hi 6. shooting- trip. ■ . Very rarely it is .that .a stag -, comes down, from this altitude in the season/ When' one does, it is usually to cross ,the^gully from one range to the other, and such a'stag.is called v a "crossing,, stag'' -or a, "runner." Sometimes", too, it is many hours after leaving .camp 'before one. gets to the scene, of the* stalk. - „ . j Mr.. Steffan has, spent about, 20 years in the Martinborough < district, near the iiaurangi Forest, and he is proud of the place. Yet, he says,, although the place is literally swarming with deer, there are few good heads, and new, blood .is sadly wanted.. He has just, come back from 'the district, where he spent the last three weeks, anb! in this .. time he, .calculates He saw from three to four thousand deer. j They are, he says, -in lots of .fifty or sixty, and often he saw < as many as, a dozen stags together, and yet there were scarcely any of them" that., would be "worth stalking a hundred yards. On Te Awaite station the herds are clearer, and this is accounted for.'by the- fact that they ' have been thinned down by , about six or, seven thousand head, in six years. One man is, kept employed. at>the, business,, and he accounts fpr about seven .hundred , head,every, year. No- systematic culling, has been carrjed.'out yet. The effect has-been, niarked, ". and the animals still left are s markedly , superior to those .in the surrounding- districts. ■ And yet the place .is almost .hopelessly overI stocked. , Mr. Steffan's estimate of the three to four thousand head he saw was j a low one, and he. -cannot- giye any idea how many more ".were there that -he did not. see, for -he only*, .prospected - the clearings and .never- went in .-the bush t at all. Certainly something should- be done, he . says, .to, alter , this state of affairs, and the introduction of, s fresh strains and' new blood, is urgently, needed. He .is still con.vin.ced- that this, country Us to be classed with the- best > deer forests, of the .w.orld. . - , • ■ • ' ' CHAMOIX. 1 ' ' " ' " Copiing as lie does from the Tyrol, Mr. •Steffan 'is greatly interesi'ted % ir\ • the chamoix which were recently , liberated in the "Mount X'ookj. district. He is an expert authority, and "he "puts ' it 'forward that there could ' not" possibly be finer country £or t these , blasts. ' Many' people are 'inclined Ho regard the "chamois as. a kind of goat,' but he "points out that this is'a.trite wrong. "If is in. .reality an antelope, the only • one of ' that species »in Europe.' They '.wf 11,- he thinks, do well at- Mount' Cook, 'bufc'.tlrby' are a slow breeding animal, , having 'only one kid a ■year. ' They -'are long-lived, however, and no -amount' of' snow" will 'inconvenience them at .all.. . - - ' » The -red deer mentioned above 1 is on view in -Tisdall'-s, Lambton-quay, and any sportsman -can 'form his own conclusions whew he- sees -it. -