PRESENT CONDITION OF DEER IN 
NEW ZEALAND 
I T is not a particularly difficult matter to establish a herd of red deer 
in a mountainous country which is suited to them, as is New Zealand; 
the trouble is to maintain a high standard of heads in after years. In 
this respect the New Zealand authorities do not appear to have been 
altogether successful. I have heard of no particularly good Wairarapa 
heads being killed recently; I do not think the Nelson herd ever pos- 
sessed such a thing; whilst the Otago deer, though the possessors of 
many fine heads, have been allowed to fall into such a state of bad 
management that it is very doubtful if they will ever, in spite of very 
costly remedies, be extricated. 
No account of the deer of New Zealand would be complete without some 
mention of the development of the Otago herd, and as some valuable 
inferences may be drawn I propose to deal rather fully with the subject. 
When I visited the country seven years ago I was astonished at the 
number of inferior deer to be seen. I had never stalked in Otago before and, 
as one always leaves new ground having learned where not to go, I am 
quite prepared to admit that I might have done better by going elsewhere. 
The Dingle, where I stalked, is not far distant from the Morven Hills. 
Here the deer were first liberated, and here at the present day is accumu- 
lated much of the bad stock which it should be the aim of the Otago Accli- 
matization Society to get rid of. New Zealanders and all sportsmen who 
visit their country owe a great debt to the Acclimatization Societies. They 
have accomplished much in the face of many obstacles, but the particular 
society with which I am dealing has left undone many things that it ought 
to have done, even if it has not done those things which it ought not 
to have done. 
I criticized, in a letter to the “Otago Daily Times,” the state of things 
which I found existing in 1907. In a fortnight’s stalking I saw sixty -one 
stags, ten of them being young six-pointers. Of the remaining fifty-one, 
thirty-three might be called normal, ten were pronounced malforms, 
one was a switch, while the remaining seven had but one horn apiece. Of 
the thirty -three I have called normal, thirteen were probably old stags 
going back and four carried heads of seven points. This brings the total 
down to sixteen good stags, and of this number three were shootable 
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