WILD PIG MENACE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 656, 7 May 1929, Page 11

WILD PIG MENACE

DAMAGE NEAR WANGANUI BONUS FOR SNOUTS (Special to THE SUX) WANGANUI, Monday. The wild pig menace in the Wanganui h inter! and has always been regarded as serious, and it manifests itself to an alarming degree during the lambing period. The problem was referred to at a meeting of the Wgitotara County Council, when one councillor alleged that the menace was on the increase and was getting out of hand. At present the Government allowed the Forestry Department a limited amount for bonuses on wild pigs’ snouts. Payments were made between the months of July and October. The speaker urged that a continuous system of payment throughout the year would be more beneficial and would induce farmers to employ more men to help to eradicate the nuisance. A resolution was carried urging on the Government the need of combating the menace. DAMAGE BY GOATS PROBLEM IN TARANAKI Press Association NEW PLYMOUTH, Monday. At the official opening by the Prime Minister, Sir Joseph Ward, of the bitumen-sealed road to the North Egmont Mountain House to-day, the chairman of the National Park Board, Mr. J. C. List, said one of the greatest problems before tjie boaiyl was the extermination of goats from the reserves. The rangers had in the past few months shot over 600 goats near the road, but thousands more were devouring the undergrowth of the forest and were barking trees up to 2.41 b in diameter. If the work were not vigorously pushed the goats would destroy the whole vegetation of the forest, which would lead to the drying up of the present water catchment areas, and would ruin Taranaki as a rich pastoral province. The board had recently commenced reafforesting its open land, and had planted 110,000 trees, and hoped to continue operations and so provide work for the unemployed in the winter.