Martinborough bush hunting for tourists: Sir Joseph Ward reassures

Ashburton Guardian, 17 May 1905

THE TOURIST DEPARTMENT — Sir Joseph Ward has written to the Wairarapa "Age" contradicting a statement which appeared recently in that paper, to the effect that the Tourist Department was anxious to secure the bush and deer country behind Martinborough for the exclusive use of tourists from abroad.

"Whatever regulations may be made in future for the management and control of shooting on any part of these lands," he writes, "will apply equally to residents of New Zealand and sportsmen from abroad. The Department is as keenly anxious to provide sport for our own people as for the foreign visitor, and there has never been any suggestion that distinctions should be made."

A report in the Fielding Star, 10 April 1909, notes that

So far, over forty deer-stalking licenses have been issued from the Martinborough Post Office for the 1909 season.