DAMAGE BY DEER

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 918, 11 March 1930, Page 7

DAMAGE BY DEER

NUMBERS INCREASE RAPIDLY From Our Own Correspondent TAUMARUNUI, Monday. That the rapidly increasing deer herds, and the consequent damage to cuultivated areas, will have the inevitable effect of driving some men off the land, was the opinion expressed by an experienced farmer of the Taringamotu Valley, where a large herd under the protection ofthe Auckland Acclimatisation Society lias its habitat. The farmer mentioned that on a recent morning over 20 deer had been counted in a turnip field, and specimens of the damaged roots were exhibited as prof of the extensive harm that can be done. In a remarkably short space of time a herd of twenty or thirty deer can do incalculable damage to crops. It is estimated that they travel over the fields at about 12 miles an hour, eating and destroying as fast as they move. Certain sections of the farming community in the Valley, one of the most fertile in the King Country, are greatly concerned over the prospects in regard to the deer menace, and are watching the rapid growth of the herds with considerable dismay. If the present rate of increase continues, it is considered that some of the farmers will be forced to leave their holdings. It is suggested that if farmers and others interested were given permission to shoot the deer all the year round a check would be put on their increase, and tend to keep them back in the hilly fastnesses where they can do no harm.