ACCLIMATISATION.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4586, 13 July 1923, Page 3

ACCLIMATISATION.

fish and game. FAULTS in ‘new ZEALAND. • Mr Ja-mbs Dobson, fish and game expert from Aratapu, Northern Wairoa,. is in this district putting his views before-sportsmen and the pub- . lie on the ' rearing and preservation - of fish and game in New Zealand, Every sportsman in the Dominion (said Mr Dobson in the course of an interview) has noticed the gradual decrease of' game all over the Do-minion-for a great number of years, and all efforts by Goverpment departments and acclimatisation societies have utterly failed to improve matters. Societies blamed the sportsman for shooting too many birds, and United his number of birds to 12 a dayIt made no difference ; game still decreased. Then they prevented the sportsmen from shooting hen pheasants. After years of hen protection .still the decrease. They then stopped the selling of licenses ; after years of this, the same result. Socieites then blamed the poachers, and they are offering a reward to-day of £2O for the prosecution of a poacher; after years of this it is still a failure. Whv is it fish and game is a complete suc- : cess in the Old" Country ? because it is managed by practical* trained fish . and game-experts, who are trained to the work, like any either tr.ade is. . Here acclimatisation councillors are elected, without any qualification, from Tom; Dick, and Harry. There are about 30 societies, including Government departments, with about 1.0 councillors on each society, and there is not a practical fish and game ex- . pert among them. Then what else can you expect but failure. Theie are 23 000 gamekeepers at Home, all trained men, all working under the one sotind policy. It is easy to see what is wrong; nothing else is to blame but the 300 Toms, Dicks, and Harrys. GAME SELLING LICENSES. ‘ Through societies prohibiting the .sale of game they have prevented .ib'fgr ,a inillidn people in the Domin- - 'ion from ‘ buying a . head of game to put on their talile'as food, said Me ' licbson. If a doctor attempted to buy game to try and' save the lives of hospital patients he would be heavily fined. That is the work of the 300. Game selling licenses are sold all over Great Britain, and millions of ' people buy millions of game and wild fowl. Hospitals, hotels, and any per- ? .son can 1 buy as many as they want jf that beautiful, healthy food. That -is management by ' practical men. How long are New Zealanders going Jto be troderi- down by ignorance. Get / on your : feet, take the management ■■ from the ; 300' and put practical experts in their place. ./GAMEBIRDS'. What have acclimatisation societies done in acclimatising game birds for over 50 years ? said Mr Dobson. Quail are ; under (he (Wild Birds Act . atjH.ome ;‘and are ; hot ; recognised as game. I have proved. that quail■ are just a farmers’ pest,- and should never have been allowed into the Dominion. French and grey , partridges , have . been imported into the Dominion on , many occasions by societies all over .I the. Southland North Island, and all these attempts to ,-acclimatise the r partridge., have been utter failures, as there is.not a partridge in the Dominion to-day. Then what is to blame for all those years of wasting '■ sportsmen’s money ? There is but one answer —the 300.. The pheasant was acclimatised in New Zealand by a private sportsman before any society imported them, so that after -. thousands of pounds of sportsmen’s money have been wasted acclimatisation societies have failed absolutely to acclimatise a single head of wing game in . the Dominion. DIVIDED CONTROL. Fish and game at Home are controlled by one head, said Mr Dobson, a practical, trained man, and his word is law over all assistants, fn New Zealand we have fish under the Marine Department, fish and game under Internal Affairs, Rabbits under the Agricultural Department, fish and game under the Tourist Department, fish and game under acclimatisation societies. What a lovely combination of ignorance. Wake up, sportsmen, and get one control, .with a practical man as leader. Then,, and not till then* will you get satisfaction. LIBERATING OF PHEASANTS. - Up to the present the work of sosieties all over the Dominion in liberating pheasants has been a bad failure, continued Mr Dobson. I walked over a society’s ground, and in two days I rose 50 cocks and 10 hens. The society liberated equal numbers of cocks and hens, about five of each. I would have liberated 240 hens and no cocks. So they had 52 surplus cocks, to force the hens to leave their nests and let the eggs get spoiled. That Is an example of the different management of a practical man and the 300. . There are three ways of stocking, said Mr Dobson. Stock co shoot, by liberating young cocks and hens before shooting season; fresh blood stocking, by liberating full-grown cooks when shooting season is closed ; restocking with cocks and hens when shooting is closed. The practical expert goes over the country with notebook in pocket and does hi? allocating of birds, according to the needs of different parts of the district,, while societies do their allocating of birds bv°r a whisky or cigar,, in the towns. 'Another example of the vprk of the ' 300. ’ ADVANTAGES OF COUNTRY. Seeing fthait game is such a great success ,at Home, have they greater advantages than New Zealand has? Certainly 'not. Home has 30 different kinds of game vermin, aaginst New Zealand’s >5. New Zealand has a better climate, more insect life, better cover, etc. Then why have they failed ? Our answer—the 300. While societies are wasting sportsmen’s money in rearing pheasants the wi’d game is being eaten up in hundreds of thousands. I have had a ■weasel kill 19 pheasants in twenty minutes, a rat kill 16 in. an hour, a

hawk two big pheasants in ten minutes. a cat 54 pheasants in a week, and a stray dog kill 151 pheasants, a hawk eat 13 pheasant eggs in twenty minutes, 500 1 wild ducks killed by hawks on three acre,s of ground in two months —all in New Zealand. PHEASANT REARING. The Auckland society’s policy in 1922 was to rear 1000 pheasants a year for liberating to shoot. This society has about 6000 square miles in its district. It means one-sixth of a pheasant per .square mile, and considering that they are not allowed to .shcot hens, it means one cock pheasant for every 7680 acres. There are over two million head of game vermin in the Auckland district, and when those vermin have had a feed of that young cock, how much would be left for the sportsmen oh the opening of the shooting season? The Tourist Department has not, on an average, reared 250 pheasants. Suppose it had done .so, it would mean less than one cock pheasant for every 30,000 acres of land, and when rabbit poison and vermin have had their share, whajt. about hunting for a needle in a haystack—it’s not in it. Poor sportsmen; fancy one Government department rearing and liberating pheasants and the Agricultural Department laying rabbit poison that poisons them. And the Internal Affairs Deaprtment sits in the armchair and looks on. RANGERS AND POACHERS. There are no poachers in New Zealand ; they are what gamekeepers call pot hunters. Each poacher costs on an average to prosecute about £l5O. That is for ranger’s salary anl expenses. Suppose a ranger prosecutes a poacher for five years running ; the poacher would still be alive at the end of five years at a cost of £750. Suppose you told the ranger to kill two hawks on the first ot January and gave him all the rest of the yeais as a holiday. At the end of the five years he would have killed 107-1 hawks. In other words, 1074 poachers dead. That will give you an idea of the societies’ system of ranger control and my system of vermin control. Just fancy a ranger working under a practical expert killing vermin all the year round. If al] the rangers in New Zealand went Home a,nd applied for a gamekeeper’s position where it was (the preservation of wild game, not one of them would get a job. Tom Speedy, one of Scotland’s cleverest game preservers, in his book on game, said the gamekeeper that cannot kill vermin is not worth his salt, and I say the same about all the rangers in the Dominion. And the 300 —they are not worth their salt.

The Tourist Department has not, on an average, reared 250 pheasants. Suppose it had done .so, it would mean less than one cock pheasant for every 30,000 acres of land, and when rabbit poison and vermin have had their share, whajt. about hunting for a needle in a haystack—it’s not in it. Poor sportsmen; fancy one Government department rearing and liberating pheasants and the Agricultural Department laying rabbit poison that poisons them. And the Internal Affairs Deaprtment sits in the armchair and looks on. RANGERS AND POACHERS. There are no poachers in New Zealand ; they are what gamekeepers call pot hunters. Bach poacher costs on an average to prosecute about £l5O. That is for ranger’s salary anl expenses. Suppose a ranger prosecutes a poacher for five years running ; the poacher would still be alive at the end of five years at a cost of £7-50. Suppose you told the ranger to kill two hawks on the first ot January and gave him all the rest of the yeais as a holiday. At the end of the five years he would have killed 1074 hawks. In other words, 1074 poachers dead. That will give you an idea of the societies’ system of ranger control and my system of vermin control. Just fancy a ranger working under a practical expert killing vermin all the year round. If al] the rangers in New Zealand went Home a,nd applied for a gamekeeper’s position where it was the preservation of wild game, not one of them would get a job. Tom Speedy, one of Scotland’s cleverest game preservers, in his book on game, said the gamekeeper that cannot kill vermin is not worth his salt, and I say the same about all the rangers in the Dominion. And the 300 —they are not worth their salt.