SHOOTING AND FISHING

Hokitika Guardian, 8 November 1930, Page 6

SHOOTING AND FISHING

SCOTLAND AND WESTLAND

LONDON, September 19,

Blackwood’s Magazine ifor September contains a very brightly-written article by the Lord Latymer, who with Lady Latymer, arrived in New Zealand last February, had a very good time fishing in Lake Taupo an dthe Tongariro River and then migrated in Marchto the South Island to be in plenty of time for the stags. At Makarora they found a comfortable little wooden hostel, admirably managed hv a widow lady, Mrs E., and her charming daughter. They covered an immense tract of country during their .stay, and they hope to go hack to New Zeaand at no very distant date, “if we can save enough from the wreck which the Socialists are so busily producing,” to try and find a ‘'super” head. Lord Latymer remarks:

One of the questions we were often asked on our return to civilisation was, how does the Westland stalking compare with Scotch stalking.-' The answer is not easy to give, as the two things differ so much. If comparison must be made, there is no doubt that the Scotch deer are more difficult to approach. On the other hand, the preliminary difficulties, apart from the actual stalk, are much greater in Westland, which is a rougher and wilder country than any part of Scotland with which lam acquainted. Stalking above the bush is not dissimilar from stalling on one of the highest and wildest of the Scotch iorests. The stalking on the various river flats is a thing of its own, and comparable with nothing I have done before. Referring to the controversy which has lately raged in the Dominion as to whether the deer are damaging the forest, the 'writer comments:

I am told that certain persons interested in forestry have calculated that there are 2,000,000 deer in the South Island alone ,aml fear total destruction for the forests. How they arrive at their heroic total I know not, but they may sleep quietly in their beds so far as the Lantlsborough. country is concerned. Here and there you will find well-marked deer tracks in the bush, mostly running up the hill, and the young trees for 20 or 30 yards on either side have suffered some hurt. But these tracks are not easy to find, and you pray traverse for miles along the hillside, if you can force your way through the dense thicket, without coming across one. Another much debated point is why really first-class heads—George’s “super” heads —have lately become so scarce in Westland. Some, people aver that there are none left, owing to over-crowding, in-breeding,.-shortage of food supply, and so on. Others, with whom I am inclined to agree, argue that “super” heads have always been few and far between, and point to the unusual cold of the last two or three winters and springs as the main reason why no very good heads have been killed for a season or two. Of overcrowding or shortage of food supply there are no visible signs whatever. As to inbreeding, there are no /wire fences in Westland, and stags wander enormous distances in autumn when the mating fit is on them. It seems an unlikely theory- to me, and I believe that any season in which the spring grass is not killed by unusual frosts will produce its quota of “super” heads.