The Deerstalkers: a history of the New Zealand Deerstalkers' Association, 1937-1987 Philip Holden, signed.

From inside front cover .. In May 1938 120 deerstalkers met in Invercargill for the official formation of the New Zealand Deerstalkers' Association. Little could they have realised the crucial role this organisation was to play during the next 50 years in fighting for the very survival of New Zealand's big game herds.

Ever since 1930 the big game animals have been classed as pests. Extermination was the bottom line of government policy. In turn deer culling, the use of 1080 poison and commercial hunting, often from helicopters to ensure wholesale slaughter, were promoted by public authorities as ways of killing off these 'noxious animals.

In this history of the New Zealand Deerstalkers' Association, their long campaigns to save the wapiti herd of Fiordland, the Rusa deer of the Ureweras, the Sambar of the Manawatu, the Thar of South Canterbury, are unfolded in fascinating detail. It was only through arduous research in the field and intense political lobbying that the N.Z.D.A. gradually altered the popular misconception that these introduced species were destroying vegetation and accelerating erosion. The switch in recent years from an extermination policy to big- game management plans and the creation of Recreational Hunting Areas are due mainly to the work of N.Z.D.A. members.

This Hardback is in Very Good condition, Printed1987, 1st edition, signed, 333 pages, 19cms x 26cms tall. some light bumping.

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