CONTROL OF WILD LIFE.

Forest and Bird, Issue 20, 1 March 1930, Page 8

CONTROL OF WILD LIFE.

(By Captain E. V. Sanderson.)

The wild life of any country has an intimate bearing on the prosperity of its human inhabitants. As for instance in New Zealand our forests supply the all essential timber, check erosion and the devastation of our farming lands thereby, while our pastoral and agricultural pursuits are largely influenced by the presence of desirable birds and their activities in checking insect and rodent pests and germ diseases. Indeed, the very prosperity of our country depends in a very large degree on the efficient care and control of wild life matters.

Here in New Zealand Acclimatisation Societies were formed many years ago to introduce desirable forms of wild life owing to the upsetting of Nature’s balance by the comparatively sudden conversion of forest covered lands into open country. A sufficiency of birds adapted to the purpose of checking insect pests was not present; insect life increasing beyond all bounds, threatened to make agricultural pursuits an impossibility. A great and onerous responsibility was thus thrown largely upon Acclimatisation Societies. As years went on, owing to the method of the election of the executives of these societies by the votes of sportsmen alone, they have drifted largely into fishing and shooting clubs, leaving the main objects of their original formation neglected and all interests other than the sportsman’s. Other bodies took up various branches of wild life as the necessity arose, as for instance the Department of Lands held on to the care of scenic reserves, Internal Affairs sanctuaries under the Animals Protection and Game Act, 1921-2, the Tourist Department other sanctuaries, and later the Forest Service were handed the care of Forest Reserves, etc., etc. This multi-control has, as would be expected, resulted in much waste of wild life revenue and much diffusion of any expert knowledge available, a confliction of opinions, and an endeavour on the part of those bodies controlling to use the various sections as they thought fit. Research into the many Complex and vital problems con-

nected with wild life matters has been practically nil, while the controlling bodies have been content to rely on mere hearsay evidence, especially if the hearsay evidence was in the direction desired. Now is this business-like? Would anyone care to have their own personal affairs run without a guiding hand and without any common policy? Can such a medley be in the best interests of the community? Surely the whole should be looked upon as a whole. All individual interests are intermixed and inter-allied intimately with the care and control of wild-life matters. Under our present system or lack of system one body is frequently defeating the aims of another. Nay, even one Acclimatisation Society is at times working on opposing lines to others for the want of expert leading direction and the representation of other interests on their executives than sportsmen. In the course of the direction by the Department, which is supposed to control Acclimatisation Society efforts, the opinion of the first authorities in the land have in the past been disregarded, as witness the wholesale distribution of plant-eating animals in our forests.

Surely common sense and patriotism should appeal in bettering our present methods and in remedying the disastrous mistakes of the past. Nature lovers, for one body, submit that they have as much right as the hunter to have their wishes considered as they enjoy themselves as much, nay more, in their way than the hunters do in theirs and there are more of them. Likewise the forester, the agriculturist, and many others have their rights.

Wild-life care is the work of experts and much scientific and accurate research is necessary before coming to conclusions. Acclimatisation Societies have been accused in the past of deciding in five minutes matters on which it would take twelve months careful scientific work to reach a logical conclusion.

Acclimatisation Societies should surely aim at something higher and nobler than merely catering for the killer. They can be converted into highly useful bodies by sanctioning and obtaining the representation of other bodies on their executives besides sportsmen, and can be converted into a valuable connecting link between the controlling body and the people. Upland game birds have now become negligible in numbers and our water fowl is rapidly on the decrease mainly owing to poaching all the year round. Our forests are sadly menaced by the presence in them of plant-eating animals. Nay, the very prosperity of this fair land is in jeopardy owing to past blunders in wild-life matters. A Commission or Board of Enquiry into the results of the past efforts to administer wild life and the placing of the whole matter on a sound basis is long overdue.