THE DEER OF NEW ZEALAND 
Morrison, the then New Zealand Government agent in London, for- 
warded 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 
June 1, after a passage lasting over four months. The three remain- 
ing deer had been sent to Canterbury, but two of them succumbed on 
the voyage. The survivor, a hind, was accordingly sent to Wellington 
to join the two landed from the * Triton.’ Early in 1863 they were 
liberated on a Mr Carter’s run. In 1906 the number of deer on Mr 
Riddiford’s run was estimated at over 10,000. Indeed to such an extent 
had they increased that the authorities gave orders for a large number 
of hinds to be killed.”* 
The Wairarapa largely consists of bush country and the limestone 
formation enables the deer, while maintaining the German type of head 
(for there is little doubt that the imported deer were descended from 
German stock), to grow massive horns. More than one stag has been 
recorded with a beam measurement between the bay and tray tines of 
seven inches. At the exhibition of deer heads at Christchurch in 1907 I 
noticed three heads from this district with heavy bifurcations emanating 
from the back of the main beam, a formation not uncommon amongst 
park deer and for which high feeding is largely responsible. 
I was talking, recently, with a well-known New Zealand stalker who 
told me that the Wairarapa herd were now in a very bad state. The con- 
ditions under which deer -stalking is conducted in New Zealand are very 
different from those which prevail in Europe. Anyone who can afford a 
rifle and a licence can go out stalking, though certain restrictions as to 
what deer may be shot have recently been imposed. Men were allowed to 
stalk in the Wairarapa who knew nothing whatever about deer nor what 
constituted a good head. Twelve or fourteen years ago the whole district, 
including a Government reserve of 32,000 acres, was open to sportsmen, 
but the privilege was grossly abused. Hundreds of young deer of both sexes 
were killed, not because they were weak and harmful to the upkeep of 
healthy stock, but out of pure lust for slaughter. The runholders in 
consequence very naturally closed their ground to all save their personal 
friends or those who had proper introductions. The democratic 
“ sport ” (an awful word!) of America and the colonies too often gauges 
the success of his sporting trips, not by the quality of the trophies 
* Mr T. E. Donne writes recently: “To give an idea of their numbers, one large station owner in the 
Wairarapa made contracts for the destruction of 2,000 deer annually for several years in succession. 
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