DEER DESTRUCTION

New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 424, 8 August 1947, Page 11

DEER DESTRUCTION

Evidence of Damage to Forest Floors

S IR,-It should not be necessary to make any comment on the two long articles by Mr. Wendell Endicott in your issues of July 4 and 11, but just in case any of your readers should swallow the amazing suggestions he makes, it is perhaps wise to enlighten them. His suggestions are simply that we should sacri- ~ fice our countryside for the sake of a few sportsmen who wish to shoot deer. It is, or should be, elementary knowledge to a New Zealander that New Zealand having evolved without mammals is not "geared" for their presence and has developed no natural protection against them, unlike America where they are part of the natural order. It is diffiult to understand how Mr. Endicott failed to undérstand this. Cockayne, writing about deer destruction, speaks of these "priceless forests of ours" being in imminent danger of being turned into debris fields and waste grounds and the water pouring down the naked slopes bearing with it heavy loads of stones and silt to bury the fertile arable lands below. This is precisely what -has happened in some places and what would happen all over New Zea- land if the deer were unmolested; it has been overwhelmingly proved and it takes more than the "warning" (see your heading) of an overseas traveller to disprove it. Deer, if left alone, will increase in New Zealand at the rate of at least 25 per cent. per annum, some authorities put it as high as 40 per cent., and the reason why they are not increasing to that extent now and why Mr. Endicott has seen miles of bush growing "in spite of the game" is that since 1930, when the Government woke up to them, they have had their natural enemies, if the hunters of the Internal Affairs Department can be so called. But, make no mistake, they would immediately increase again if left unmolested. Mr. Wendell Endicott concludes his > articles by asking, "Does New Zealand appreciate its present position-its opportunities to support a paradise of game?" One might as well ask a man if he appreciates his opportunities to

support a paradise of typhoid germs! Nature never intended New Zealand to support game. New Zéaland used to be a paradise of birds and this has changed in living memory, owing to the introduction of pests, deer among them. New Zealand has been entrusted with a heritage of natural resources unique in the world, and it is our bounden duty to eliminate all that harms it and endeavour to restore: our country to its early glory. We could then show marvels, the unique forests, the unique birds, whose melody Captain’ Cook said was "infinitely superior to any that we had ever heard of the same kind," which would have a far greater tourist attraction than game, which is not unique.

R. H.

CARTER

Secretary to the Forest and Bird Protection Society of N. Zs Inc.