RESPITE FOR THE KEA

Hokitika Guardian, 28 August 1930, Page 2

RESPITE FOR THE KEA

For consideration which lias been accorded him througn the cancellation of the bonus for his destruction the kea has perhaps particularly to give thanks to the, application of the economic principle that in the curtailment of expenditure every little helps. The cancellation is more likely to he a cause of lament to a few persons than to many. To the bird-lover the withdrawal of the Government’s encouragement to the waging of indiscriminate" war upon the kea will be a matter of satisfaction. In the last eight years nearly 30,000 birds have been killed, largely, we may assume, for the sake of the price upon their heads or, more literally, their beaks. The assumption that 30,000 vindictive enemies of sheep and lambs were thereby destroyed has never been satisfactorily proved. Admittedly the key has a very unsavoury reputation among sheep-owners. Sufficient evidence has been forthcoming to show that his depredations among flocks in the high country are no myth. No valid renson has, however been adduced for regarding evcr\ kea as a sheepJnlWs and the iuvestU ga.tiotls of tile Alpine Club Mild the Native Birds Protection Society liaVtsuggested rather that the keas which have been slaughtered have beeh in many cases innocent of wrong-doing. It has not even been established that the bonus lias been paid necessarily on keas which had their abode in the vicinity of sheep runs. When an agitation to have the bonus withdrawn was under way a year ago it was pointed out that the sheepowner had the remedy in his own hands. As a practical farmer with the welfare of his flocks at heart he had little need of a Government bounty to encourage him to destroy any keas which threatened them with injury. So far as the interests of his sheep were concerned he would destroy of; fending keas irrespective of whether the bonus was five shillings, half-a. crown, or nothing. This is apparently the view that,,the Government .muj reached after experimenting for a year with the payment of half the original bonus. Prior to this a sum nearing £IOOO per annum had been paid as a stimulant to the slaughter of the kea, and it may be that the sudden • zeal for economy that has recently been discernible in the Estimates has had a greater weight in the cancellation of the bonus than any representations of the Bird Protection Society.

By whatever reasoning the Government may have been moved, the outcome is that the.,kea, one of the most quaint and interesting of our native birds, has beeh granted a relief from an assault that plight have resulted, 111 time, iff its' extinction. Another interesting /bird;,/the . .price placed upon the head of which many would he glad to see lifted, is the shag, Carrying their sseal' tar in One direc. fcvon the Aicclimatisation Saeiaties make some distinctions that are logical only from their own, point of view. Thus when recently Christchurch was honoured with a. gratifying visitation, and penguins appeared on the Avon, the discordant note in their civic reception came from the Acclimatisation Society, which demanded their banishment elsewhere.