Red deer plentiful - 1894

Auckland Star, 13 April 1894

Says the "Post," Mr Donne who has returned from the Wairarapa, reports that red deer are very plentiful about the Gladstone and Martinborough districts.

Stags with good heads are fairly numerous, but very shy and difficult to stalk.

The Messrs Strang (of Greenside station), Mr James Cooper (of Taipo station), Mr Donne, and others secured 14 heads during the first week, one having 18 points, two 13, eight 12, and three 10.

A large number of young stags were seen.

The Wellington Acclimatisation Society's request that no stags carrying fewer than ten points be shot is generally regarded by sportsmen.

Large numbers of deer have settled on Mr John Martin's Puratangi estate, where shooting is prohibited. The conservation of the deer on this property is very generally approved, as it affords the animals a shelter from the sportsmen not otherwise obtainable.

While [on] the Hinewaka Mountain on Tuesday last Mr Donne found a number of large leg bones of the moa. Sir James Hector intends exhibiting them at the next meeting of the Wollington Philosophical Society.