Wapiti poaching case considered

Taupo Times, Volume XIV, Issue 63, 12 August 1965, Page 2

Wapiti poaching case considered

The New Zealand Deerstalkers' Association is to ask the Fiordland National Park Board what action it proposes to take concerning the admission by Mr Rex Forrester that he had been involved in a case of wapiti poaching in the park area. At its annual meeting in Westport recently, the association discussed the case, which involved a German industrial millionaire who was being guided by Mr Forrester on a hunting trip.

Speaking for the national executive, Mr A. Hood, a former president, said that the former professional hunting guide, Mr Rex Forrester, now with the Tourist and Publicity Department, had admitted both in a magazine article and in a recently - published book that he had broken the law to take Baron von Opal, of Germany, into the Fiordland National Park to shoot a wapiti bull. Mr Forrester admits in the hook he did not tell Baron von Opal that he was breaking the law. Mr Hood asked that the association write to the Fiordland National Park Board asking what action it proposed to take in view of Mr Forrester's admission and his rnotion was supported unanimously. "This is a free country without social barrier or privilege. It is onr duty to see that this type of favoured treatment i;s not winked at just because it involves a v.Ip. from another country," Mr Hood continued. "That wapiti bull was the rightful property of some New Zealand stalker who may now never get another opportunity." Outlining the background to the case, Mr Hood said that Mr Forrester first applied to the park board and was told that the area was under the control of the N.Z.D.A. The board was not prepared to give permission. Mr Hood said Mr Forrester then applied to him as the president of the N.Z.D.A. for permission to take Baron von Opal into the area to shoot a wapiti bull. This permission was refused on the grounds that none of New Zealand's 7000 members, irrespective of money or other factors, would he permitted snch a trip. "Many of our members had spent many hours culling in the area and had yet never been successful in drawing a marble in the wapiti ballot entitling them

to shoot a wapiti bull. • "I think it is wrong in principle that one set of regulations should apply to New Zealanders and a completely different set Of regulations apply to certain privileged people," Mr Hood said. Mr Forrester was under a moral obligation to apply to his clients the same rules that applied to New Zealand stalkers. He has also a legal obligation to abide by the rules of the country which said that no firearms could be taken into a national park without a permit.