THE DEER QUESTION

Southland Times, Issue 21096, 30 May 1930, Page 3

THE DEER QUESTION

To the Editor.

Sir, —I notice in your report of the annual meeting of the Southland Acclimatization Society, the president, Mr Janies Robertson, was reported to have stated that “ a great deal of twaddle had been written and talked respecting the deer question, and that it seemed that the reports of the menace of these animals have been greatly exaggerated.” While I do not for a moment suggest that Mr Robertson wishes to wilfully mislead the public, I am inclined to the belief that his remarks have been influenced more by hearsay than from actual knowledge or personal experience. Anyone who has given the subject reasonable consideration as a result of knowledge culled from actual facts, realizes that a menace, and a very serious one, actually exists. Such has been proved and expressed by many responsible persons, whose statements have been publicly made, and have been unchallenged. It has been realized and stressed by the leading representative authorities in the Dominion, that the time has arrived for drastic measures to be adopted to strongly check, and if possible, eradicate what is admitted to be a most dangerous pest, not only to our valuable forests, but to our agricultural and pastoral lands in many parts of the Dominion. Preceded as it is by his statement that one man had culled 700 deer last summer, Mr Robertson’s remarks that some of the parties which were out shooting this season could not ’get enough deer for meat, seems to carry little weight.—l am, etc., J. B. THOMSON.