NEW ZEALAND RED DEER 93 



result is seen in the heads of the stags obtained 



a 



there. 



I am strongly of the opinion that if a stag from 

 the Wairarapa was turned out in Otago, in a few 

 years, so far as his head was concerned, it would 

 be impossible to distinguish him from any other 

 stag there. Similarly an Otago stag transferred 

 to the Wairarapa would grow an altogether heavier 

 head than he would do in the South Island. At 

 the request of Mr. Leonard Tripp, a keen North 

 Island stalker, I was instrumental in obtaining two 

 stags and six hinds from Warnham, which arrived 

 safely in Wellington last September (1907). If only 

 the Otago Acclimatisation Society had, at the same 

 time, imported some of Mr. Lucas's deer to Otago, 

 I venture to think that in a few years they would 

 have proved my argument. 



A short account of the origin of the Wairarapa 

 herd may be forgiven me. In 1862, by an arrange- 

 ment with the late Prince Consort, who was the 

 first man to make deer-stalking a fashionable sport, 

 Mr. John Morrison, the then New Zealand Govern- 

 ment agent in London, forwarded six deer to the 

 Colony. A stag and two hinds were shipped by 

 the Triton to Wellington. One stag and one hind 

 arrived safely on 1st June, after a passage lasting 

 over four months. The three remaining deer had 

 been sent to Canterbury, but two of them succumbed 

 on the voyage. The survivor, a hind, was accord- 

 ingly sent to Wellington to join the two landed 



