DEER MENACE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 31 July 1929, Page 9

DEER MENACE

OVERFLOW FROM HIGH COUNTRY /INVASION Off GRAZING AREAS (By Teleurapk-Speoial to "Tho Mail") CIiIiISTOIIUItCII, This Day. Mr .1. Anderson, who has spent the last few months in the back country between llanniei and Lake Rotoroa investigating the menace In runholders and native forest from red deer, arrived in Christchuivh yesterday. '•Without any doubt," he "remarked to a reporter, 'there is a rapid increase of red deer. The most serious drawback runholders occupying land adjoining the main range that- travelses practically the whole of the South Island have to contend with is that mi much of the laud is inaccessible to man, hut is easily accessible to deer, where these pests can and do breed unmolested. As the natural increase overstocks this country and feed becomes scarce, the overflow comes out to the lower country occupied by sheep and cattle graziers. "There are some, stations whose carrying capacity has de-c-reused by as much as 40 per cent, during the past tell years, and what is going to. happen if this increase is not checked'' Cattle, and sheep will be eventually starved out, and thousands of valuable acres will he given over to what is rapidly developing into a national pest in this country."