RED DEEP

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVII, Issue 33, 7 February 1913, Page 2

RED DEEP

-*■ HEADS DETERIORATING

VIEWS OF AN AUTHORITY.

I I -°jer. tAy£nt? years ago there arrived m Wellington a native Of the Austrian Tyrol, F. S. Steffan, ami as the vessel cam© through the Port Nicholson Heads he was immediately struck with the likeness of the surrounding country to that of his native land. He thought of the mountains

at home with their deer and ehamoix, and our New Zealand ranges did not suffer by the comparison. This week, when interviewed by an Evening Post reporter, Mr Steffan was of precisely the sam« opinion. "I have been in tho Himalayas, Canada, the Styrian, and the Austrian Alps and I am sure nothing can compare with the Mount Cyi«k st-b----alpine tracts," he avers. Mr Steffan is_ an admitted authority on all appertaining to the red deer, for he has spent the best part of his Hfe amongst the herds, and the roaring of a"royal" is all the music he wants for his envs. . He is now stationed at Kurow, North Otago, and he Vs brought with him from that district a t.h'rtrenpointer head—one of the old Scotch heads which are so noticeable in the Waitaki and surmnncHng country. This is a good specimen *of the old stag of Onlodonif) with all its symmetry, its weight and spread, and Mr Steffan is of opinion that h^ads like th^se, wrrcb enn be found in plenty in hi.s district. wonVl be hnrd to mntch in tho North Island. The North Otngo dic+r:c+ w,?s originally stocked frnm the herds of th« Kf>H 'nf Dalhousie, and the strain Kis l^^ kr>pt remarkably fr^sh to this dny. The r^nson is not far to s<v>V. For one thing this NoHh Otn<ro stock has 7iot t'i« enVenco thnt is the lot of tho Wn irarapa rfd deer. They "ye in what is reillv ? pub-pi^ire region, and do not enjoy the privilege of go+t-ng food wW^TTor thov'loolc for rt- Tn the winter there pre heavy rolls of snow and it h then that Nat, lro nntompti«nllv culls the herds. All tho v*>ry old hinds nnd stntrs perish m the cold, and thus beasts that would

only eat feed and would be of no profit to the herd are weeded out. Two years ago last September Mr Steffan was sent out by the Waata&i Acclimatisation Society to inspect their herds. There was a severe fall of snow at the time arid in the vicinity of the Deep Creek country, where it was particularly heavy, he found: a dozen or more dead deer. On examining them for bullet wounds he found that they were in no way marked and had not been shot. They were all very old and had died from exposure. The members of the society themselves help on this culling, for they shoot an average of sixty head' a year, all malformed and olii animals. Mr Steffan is absolutely satisfied that this tract would be hard to beat anywhere in the world as deer-co\in-try. There is abundance of blue tussock for feed and the herds kept well above the 4000 foot level in the shooting season. Their whole environment tends to make them hardy and to keep the mobs fit as a whole. As stalking country it is just as excellent, for there is not too much cover, and it takes a master hand to stalk a wary stag when all there is to hide behind is a~snow grass tuft once every little while. The deer keep well above the birch forests in the sea- . son, but as the winter approaches they conio to the !owo.r and the warmer levels. Some, like the dead ones (wen by Mr Steffan, fail to make the passago to tho plains. This choice of tl'en, makes them more difficult of access, and a stalker has to be_ content to combine more than a spice _of mountaineering with his shooting trip. Very rarely it is that ft stag conies down from this §ltitude

in the season. When one does, it is usually to cross the gully from one range to the other, and such a stag is called a ''crossing stag" or a "runner." Sometimes, too, it is many hours after leaving camp before one gets to the scene of the stalk. Mr Steffan has spent about 20 years m the Martinborough district, near the iiaurangi Forest, and he is proud of the place. Yet, lie says, although the place is literally swarming with deer, there are few good heads and new blood is sadly wanted. He has just come back from the district, where he spent the last three weeks, and m this time he calculates he saw from three to four thousand deer. Ihey are, he says, in lots of fifty or sixty, and often he saw as many as a dozen stags together, and yet* there were scarcely any of them that would n rt 4 stalkin 2 a hundred yards. Un ie Awaite station the herds are clearer, and this is accounted for by the fact that they have been thinned down by about six or seven thousand, head in six years. One man is kept employed at the business, and he accounts for about seven hundred head every year. No systematic culling has been carried out yet. The effect has been marked, and the animals still left are markedly superior to those in the surrounding districts. And yet the place is almost hopelessly overstocked Mr Steffan's estimate of the three to four thousand head he saw was a low one, and he cannot give any idea how many more were there that he did not see, for he only prospected the clearings and never went in the bush <at all. Certainly something should be done, he says, to alter this state of affairs, and the introduction of fresh strains and new blood is urgently needed. He is still convinced that this country is to be classed with the best deer forests of the world. CHAMOIX. C? ! mi S g a? he does from the Tyrol, Mr bteffan is greatly interested in the chamorx which were recently liberated in the Mount Cook district/ He isln expert authority, and he puts it foxward that there could not possibly be finer country for these beasts. Many people are inclined to regard the chamois as a kind of goat, but he points out that this is quite wrong. 1S <V eallty an antelope, the only one of that species in Europe. They will he thinks, do well at Mount Cook but they are a slow breeding animal, having only one kid a veart Ihey are long-lived, however, and no amount of snow will inconvenience them at all.

The red deer mentioned above is on view m TisdalPs, Lambton Quay and any sportsman can form his own conclusions when'he sees it. *