AS OTHERS SEE US.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4629, 23 November 1923, Page 2

AS OTHERS SEE US.

DOMINION PESTS. The September number of ‘My Magazine,” a publication issued for the benefit of young people, contains some interesting information, but the following regarding pests in New Zealand will come as a surprise to many readers. An article states “One of the most charming countries and climates in the world (except, perhaps, for the many winds that blow) i? New Zealand, three days’ sale from Australia. It is so pleasant that most animals, including men, both multiply and grow abnormally big. Among them are fish —especially trout—hares, and red deer. All these have become so numerous that they interfere with the general prosperity, and, indeed, with their own health. The result is that it has been thought necessary to .net tons of trout in some of the ; lakes, so that the numbers should not interfere with the food supplies' and the breeding. Again, no one ever dreamed that < so shy and wild a creature as the red deer of Scotland could so flourish in a new country as to become a nuisance, but New Zealand has falsified all anticipations. Numbers of deer , have come down from the hills to the plains, where they have lost a part of their natural native habits and shyness. They have taken such a fancy, to the bark of trees that they threaten to destroy whole woods of the newlyplanted areas, and a decree has gone forth for their destruction as vermin. It is a sad conclusion. There is no lovelier animal left alive in our country. Much the same thing has happened with idle hares in the southern islands of New Zealand. So many an the?’, and so big and hungry, that they would soon eat the farmers clean out of house and home unless drastic measures were taken to keep their numbers within reason. Though animals have flourished in thi° embarrassing way in New Zealand, few plants have proved a plague. Tasmania, a paradise not unlike New Zealand in its many virtues, has harboured few enemies needing more thorough methods of extermination than the loveliest of our four wild roses, the sweetbriar. It will overrun a meadow almost as quickly as the rabbits, and in spite of its beautv it will make of a rich surface such a wilderness as thorns and briars made - of Eden. Another thorny plant, called not a briar but a bramble, perform wonders of growth in the Antipodes. The blackberry flourishes finely in England; indeed, it is so fond of bur climate that, as Darwin noted, it is on the way to become an evergreen. But the activity of the blackberry here is as nothing to the athletic feats it has accomplished in Australia, where it is a recognised enemy of the community.”