PROTECTED BIRDS

Hokitika Guardian, 9 January 1928, Page 4

PROTECTED BIRDS

DEPARTMENT’S BAN.

WELLINGTON, Jan. (i. ! A promise lias been given by the Department of Internal Affairs that no permits will be issued lor the capture of protected birds for export to overseas zoos. The following letter has been forwarded to the Native Bird Protection Society by the Department: — j “1 have to acknowledge receipt jf j vour letter relative to the question el obtaining certain absolutely protected j birds for the purpose of sending them . to the London Zoo by wav of exchange ' for nightingales recently imported, and asking for an intimation as to the Department’s attitude regarding the supplying of the world’s zoos with protected birds. In reply I am directed by the .Minister of Internal Affairs to inform you that it has already been decided not to authorise the capture ol absolutely protected birds for exportation out of the Dominion. ‘ I may add lor your information that, no application for authority has yet been received, hut in the meantime Jir Wilson, who brought the nightingales to New Zealand, is being informed liiat authority In take absolutely protected birds for the purpose ol export cannot he granted.” IMPORTATION MENACE. The letter is signed by the Undersecretary. The society has replied congratulating the Department on taking a firm stand. 'llie letter says:—“The attitude of the society is not against the release of nightingales, now that they are here, except on or near a sanctuary for native birds, but it does contend that the conditions of the Act should be complied with and that the Department should have been first consulted before the birds were shipped. “Enough damage has already been, done in New Zealand in an endeavour to make this country a replica of England by people who do not realise the complexity of wild life matters. “ As it is, the society can only sympathise with the Department, who weie placed in the unenviable position t.i either ordering the destruction of (oik charming birds, or of overlooking the discourtesy shown in an endeavour to usurp the functions of the Department. The society is communicating with the Royal Society for the Protection ol Birds in England, soliciting their cooperation and assistance in the prevention of the destruction of birds in such unwise attempts as the constant repetition of the endeavours to acclimatise birds of migratory habits. This is, the society understands, the third attempt to acclimatise nightingales, and no doubt the Department could have informed those desirous of having another try that further attempts were not advisable, had it been consulted before shipping.”