THE NORTH OTAGO DEER HERD.

Otago Witness, Issue 2813, 12 February 1908, Page 36

THE NORTH OTAGO DEER HERD.

(Daily Times ) It may be remembered that about nine months ago considerable discussion took place in our columns the subject of which was the deterioration of the North Otago deer herds, and those who indulge in deer-stalking will no doubt remember the exceedingly interesting letter from a sportsman from the Old Country, Mr H. F. Wallace, that first gave the matter prominence. The account given by Mr Wallace of his observations in the Dingle and Hunter Valleys bordered on the sensational, but it speedily found a large measure of corrobora.tion from local sportsmen, and the fact was made apparent that an undue proportion of malforms and deformities was to be found in the herds in these districts, and that the matter warranted the serious attention of the Acclimatisation Societies having control over the deer country in question. The causes of these signs of deterioration in the herds were somewhat fully discussed at the time and various suggestions for their eradication were made. Since then, however, little has been heard of the matter, sportsmen not indifferent to it no doubt relying on the Acclimatisation Societies to be sufficiently alive to the need for action on behalf of the interests which it is their function to conserve. They are evidently now disposed to think, however, that in that reliance they have been leaning upon a broken reed, and the decision come to by the Otago Acclimatisation Society at its last meeting certainly seems to afford some justification for such a conclusion. The Society has not been sufficiently impressed with the necessity for an active attack by itself upon the deterioration of the red deer, established fact though it be, or upon its causes, to take any decisive steps so far to bring about an improved condition of things. It ha?, however, agreed to grant permission to a limited number of reliable stalkers to destroy all stags with malformed heads that they happen across in their shooting excursions. This, so far from being a decisive remedial measure, practically amounts to a shelving of the question in the meantime. Mr E. Hardcastle, of Christchurch, an authority on the red deer of North Otago, in a letter which appeared in our issue of Saturday last, pointed out clearly how trivial would be the good achieved by the proposition adopted by the Otago Acclimatisation Society in culling out the palpably inferior animals from the herd in the Hawea district. But the president of the Society evidently recognised himself that no great result was to be anticipated from the step decided upon svhen he stated that entirely satisfactoiy measures for the improvement of the herds could not be taken till a close season was proclaimed. To the suggestion that a close season is necessary deer-stalkers will probably, like Mr Hardcastle, take exception, and among them the proposition seems to find favour that a couple of men should be employed by the Society for a month before the stalking season opens to culf out the inferior animals, it being pointed out that the moderate expenditure involved would be more than met by the extra revenue derived from stalkers by the recent increase of the amount of license fees. The suggestion seems a practical one, and could no doubt be carried out with results such as would meet the case and as would obviate any necessity for the close season, which would be very unpopular with sportsmen and decidedly worth avoiding. In the Weekly Press of this" week appears an exceptionally interesting article by Mr Allan Gordon Cameron, a recognised authority in the United Kingdom on red deer, this being, in effect, a jraply to Mr Hardcastle's earlier

! communication to Mr Cameron on the subject of the North Otago herd. The number and quality of the New Zealand red deer seem to have been a revelation to Mr Cameron, who dis-

cusses very fully the whole question of the deformities prevalent in the herds and from his own special knowledge of the Scottish herds is able to give very instructive information. He does not attribute the trouble primarily to inbreeding, but is emphatic in the opinion that deformities which are not due to injury in growth or to pathological disturbance are inherited and transmitted. Overcrowding, moreover, i r , a danger to he guarded against. In ground crowded with poor deer " rubbish should be shot-out wholesale and hindo severely thinned. ' But we need particularise no further. The matter is oue of considerable importance to the Dominion. The North Otago herd of red deer has been claimed to be the finest herd of red deer in the world. Its number is estimated at somewhere near ten thousand head, and it is greatly in the interests of this province and of the Dominion that its reputation should be maintained. Mr Cameron thinks it should have a great future before it. Indeed, he sees in the Southern Alps of New Zealand a uew Carpathia. In the meantime nothing could he more undesirable than that damaging, reports of the condition of the herd should go forth from visitors from abroad, and the only precaution against such a possibility is to remove any justification for it as speedily as may be. It seems an entirely false conception of economy on the part of the Acclimatisation Society which leads it to defer action which may have to be undertaken at considerably greater expense later on.