THE DAMAGE DONE. 119 



D. A. Cameron is still the lessee of the run in question, 

 and whilst writing I can see his stock from my window." 



Mr, Alex. Elliott, from Kinloch Bay, Elgin, adds his 

 testimony, saying : — " I am sure that Mr. Buller made a 

 great mistake when stating that Mr. D. A. Cameron of the 

 Nokomai surrendered his run through the Keas. I know the 

 Nokomai very well, and also Mr. Cameron, and can safely 

 say that the Kea was never any trouble there." 



Finally, in order to satisfy myself thoroughly, I wrote to 

 Mr. D. A. Cameron himself and received the following 

 reply :— 



Nokomai, 



24th June, 1907. 



"Dear Sir, 



My son Alec has handed me your letter of the 19th inst., 

 re "Kea." There is no truth in the statement that I ever 

 intended to give up my run owing to excessive damage done 

 by Keas. Many years ago we had a few here, but they did 

 not do much damage to the sheep ; but on the Closeburn 

 run on Lake Wakatipu they were very troublesome. I have 

 been informed that the Lake County paid 2s. 6d. each when 

 they were at their worst, in order to destroy them. Of 

 late years they have not been troublesome on that run either. 

 I have no idea where Mr. Buller and the papers got their 

 information. 



Yours truly, 



(Signed) D. A. CAMERON. 



Apart from these erroneous published reports it is almost 

 impossible to get any true estimate of the annual losses, 

 owing to the nature of the country and the uncertainty of 

 the reports sent in. 



The country is so vast and mountainous, and the sheep 

 are only mustered at such long intervals, that when the 

 annual loss is estimated it is impossible to know what 

 percentage must be debited against the Kea. 



There is always a large annual loss due to roughness of 

 the country, this causing many sheep to be killed by their 

 falling over cliffs or being buried in the snow. 



