TOO MUCH KILLING?

New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 419, 4 July 1947, Page 6

TOO MUCH KILLING?

American Visitor Gives Us a Warning

-- | JN the following article, |

written by

H. WENDELL

ENDICOTT

and handed to ||

us by the Minister of Internal Affairs, a visitor from America begs New Zealanders not to repeat the wild life mistakes of the United States

AM not one of those persons who come into a country for a few months and think he can tell the citizen the best and only way to solve his local problems. I believe that would be thoroughly stupid, but I have seen mistakes made and tragedies perpetrated in our own United States that should give, at least, food for thought. Once our prairies teemed with buffalo -countless thousands. To-day, except for a few small protected herds and a few Northern Canadian Wood Buffalo, they are all gone. Once it looked as if they never could be cleaned out-but they are. It was done by man without any regard to conservation. Once our western lands were spotted. with vast herds of antelope. Man decimated them almost to the vanishing point. It was only by great care and protection that the species was saved and is now coming back a little-a comparatively few only and in few places, Our large herds of wapiti (elk)y once a plains animal, were slaughtered and driven to the protection of the forests. To-day they have sanctuary in our reservations but®* can, as they "work out" of the parks, be taken in limited areas, by licensed sportsmen — one bull to one licenceholder per year. I know of no State where a cow wapiti or cow moose can be taken at any time. Destruction was done by man.

At one time dee? abounded in’ all parts of the eastern States. Fortunately there are still areas in those States where sportsmen can go and get his deer -limited to certain sections or counties. Each kill is reported to the State and carefully recorded. This deer population is certainly a great asset and brings in many "out-of-State" visitors, all of whom contribute liberally to the visited State in the way of licences, the hiring of guides (out-of-State visitors are required by law in most States to employ licensed guides-usually one guide to one hunter), transportation, supplies, hotels, camps, entertainment, etc. Even as it is, there are many areas where deer have gone forever. What at one time ,had seemed an endless suply has gradually faded out. I have been- informed that 110,000 deer skins were shipped out of New Zealand last year. I know of two men who killed 1,200 deer in six months and estimated another 300 that they killed but couldn’t retrieve owing to the

inaccessibility of the terrain, I have heard of kills that even surpassed those figures. : Too In my younger. days one would have said as he gazed upon "ricks" of ducks and geese that migrated across our country by the thousands and thousandsjust clouds of them-that the supply would last forever. But such is not the case. Even with a short season and a federal limit of seven ducks and two geese per shooting day, one seldom reaches his limit. In various ways man has brought this about, such as destruc-

tion of breeding and feeding grounds as well as a steadily increasing number of eager hunters. We have been very late in taking up this problem-perhaps too late. ~ Our flocks of wild pigeons which, I am told, were in such quantities years ago as would often break the branches of trees when they came in, to roost, are now.a thing of the past. The last survivor of the fine heath hen, one old inhabitant of our Cape Cod area, passed out of existence a few years ago. The species is gone, In my youth Massachusetts offered excellent quail shootingnot so to-day. One rarely hears the whistle of the "Bob White." Some 40 or 50 years ago our markets were flooded with game — prairie chickens (now almost gone, but wholly*. protected), quail, ducks, partridges, and

other types of game, It was the commercial aspect that took the first and greatest toll-skins and meat for sale. Again and again game which seemed endless in supply has, without protection, gradually and unsuspectingly disappeared, or been reduced to pathetically limited numbers. The major objective was to kill, kill, kill-the commercial and the sporting urge blundering forward supported by ruthless, ill-consid-ered excuses and reasons. The sale of game, or the product of game taken from our own regions, is in nearly every instance prohibited to-day by law. But such laws were fought step by step by powerful groups who had many a potent reason why freedom to "kill" should reign. A Tragic Pattern Ours has been a tragic pattern. It is not a happy thing for me to say, but I can’t help sensing that to-day in New Zealand there is that same urge ne The reports of hundreds and of kills is a matter of common know ledge. The extinction of some varieties of game (game that we in the States would consider as great assets) has been ordered, This sentiment seems to extend quite broadly through the public at large --whether they ever handle a gun or not. I have heard many reasons why (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) such a policy should be upheld. I am not here to argue the wisdom of such a ~Policy-pro or con. However, may I say in passing that I have seen thousands of acres of forests (grown I believe from seedlings) still thriving in spite of the deer. I have seen miles of native bush growing luxuriantly in spite of the game. I have, however, seen countless thousands of acres that have been ruined by fire-one of the greatest tragedies that could visit any country-tragic to its people and to its game life. This is the _ backbone of erosion. In addition to this, in our own country have, in times (\/past, allowed unintelligent lumberingforests ruthlessly cut-the slashings and broken trees left carelessly as a real fire hazard. The man with the axe can do more damage to nature’s forests than game can do in 100 years. Yet I hear little of such destruction. Africa, the greatest game country in the world as to quantities and varieties, operates under great restrictions with the asset of its wild life as the basis.

Although in the United States we finally woke up to the game situation we were, in some instances, too late. In others there is a basis of real hope. Shift of Wind Probably "the shift of wind" — the change in public thinking-was due more to Theodore Roosevelt than to any one man, Organisations of thoughtful sportsmen were founded and such types of groups have constantly increased. Their understanding, their studies, their tireless efforts and their influences, together with their backing of interested government officials, have done much towards instigating and supporting wise and helpful laws and regulations, as well as educating our people to the wisdom and need of such policies. Recreation in its various branches, among which the sport of hunting and fishing looms large, is entering more and more into the lives of our citizens. Therefore the intelligent control and preservation of our country’s game has become a matter of paramount importance to us. It will be a great and

precious inheritance to our children and our children’s children. Countless of our lakes and ponds and rivers tell the same story of the "over kill" of fish, Where once I had many a productive trout stream within easy reach, to-day those very streams are troutless. Where once I could take many a sporty bass, to-day those ponds yield but meagre results. Ours is a vast country and I do not mean to infer that our fish and game is all a thing of the past. Even to-day we can go far afield and still have varying degrees of success, but always and everywhere is it regulated and, for the most part, those regulations are pretty generally lived up to.» Reckless Rishing New Zealand’s inland fishing stands high in the realm of sport. Its’ rainbow trout are famous and far surpass in size the average rainbow of our own country. Frankly, my acquaintance with the New Zealand rainbow is limited to Lake Taupo-itself @ famous fishing ground;

but if in the United States I saw as many hordes of fishermen tackling one fishing ground, I would have fears for the future. We have had so many sad examples in the past, I remember one evening when crossing the bridge over the Waitahanui River, I counted from that one spot 17 fishermen. up the river (and I could only see a short way) and standing almost elbow to elbow across the mouth of the stream below (and I couldn’t see along the beach). As I understand it, such rivers are the natural spawning grounds of this noble fish. When I spoke one day to one of the official rangers about what I had seen, he told me that he himself had noted from that same spot 22 rods on one day and 25 rods another day. I wonder how many days during the season this keeps up and for how many seasons past, and how extensively in other rivers and parts of the Lake? As I stood there that evening, my thoughts went back home. I raised my eyebrows and went on my way. I might add that we were on our way back from a very busy rabbit hunt. , (To be continued) ; s ow;