DEER CONDEMNED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 December 1938, Page 8

DEER CONDEMNED

SHOULD BE KILLED OFF RAPIDLY MUCH DAMAGE BEING DONE IN FORESTS. HON W. E PARRY’S POLICY. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. “If the bush-lovers among those who were largely responsible for the introduction of deer into New Zealand could but see the damage the animals have done and are still doing to the beautiful native trees in the south, the sight would make them forget for all time the sport they hoped to en-' joy by their action,” said the Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr Parry, yesterday. Not till a visit was paid to the southern forests, he said, could the damage done by deer to native trees be estimated. “I am. as all New Zealanders should be strongly for the protection of the country’s bush,” said the Minister. “It is worth fighting to save, but what I saw of the depredations of the animals during my recent visit south made me feel that I could lustily cheer any man who told me he had shot a deer. I have informed Cabinet that the money voted by Parliament for the killing of deer is expenditure worthily allocated and that if possible the amount should be increased, because the glorious scenic beauty the bush gives the country and the native birds that live amid it must be saved for the people to see, admire and enjoy.” Describing how the moose attacked native trees, Mr Parry said the animals apparently first scraped a tree vhth their teeth from the bottom of its trunk till the bark became loose. Their teeth then clutched a strip and the bark was peeled off the tree trunk from the bottom to top and consumed by the deer. The fate of the tree was then sealed.

“From day to day,” continued the Minister, “deer do their tree-killing work, and yet there still remain shooting men who say that some deer should be retained for sport among the wilds and grandeur of our mountains and forests. I have often expressed the Government’s view as to what should happen to. deer. It is to kill the animals off as rapidly as it is practicable to do so. That policy, I, as Minister of Internal Affairs, am carrying out.”