WAR ON HAWKS & SHAGS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 188, 26 August 1937, Page 10

WAR ON HAWKS & SHAGS

-Press Aasooiation.

Menace to Birds and Fish

By Telegrapk-

WELLINGTON, This Day. As they are considered to be a direct menace to bird life and trout, a carapaign for tlie killing of hawks and shags is beiiig waged iu the Rotorua and Taupo districts. Last niontk some 58 shags were destroyed by the rangers of the Department of lnternal Affaira. lna few days' time the cainpaign will, no doubt, be intensified on aecount of the jDrice placed by tho Govermnent upon the heads and feet of the birds — 2/- in respect of each shag, and (5d for each liawk killed within the Rotorua acchmatisation area. Official notices to that effect aro now being posted jji the district. "Evidenco in abnndaneo has been sujnplied of the deprcdatjons of ' the shag and hawk," said the Minister of lnternal Affairs, Hon. W. E. Parry, last evening. "Shags have been killed while attempting to swallow fair-sized trout, and hawks caught feeding on pheasants and quail, The trouble is that the shag and the hawk have increased greatly during the last few months. We must lesscn the colonies of them in our fisheries and game areas." Mr Parry metjfcioued tfiai, lie wa3 pleased with- tbe reports received or the destruction, since restrietions were revoked, of tlie stoat and tbe weascl, both of which animals were. respousible for the killing of nativo birds and game.