President ’ s Report
President ’ s Column
Bill O ’ Leary – National President , New Zealand Deerstalkers ’ Association
The earthquake brought property damage and personal misery to many but thankfully the NZDA National Office ( and staff ) escaped relatively unscathed .
While damage to our Collina Terrace building was minimal , the demolition of an adjacent building closed off all access and required national office operations to be conducted elsewhere . The subsequent disruption to services has been significant and it will take some time before we are back to normal . I gratefully acknowledge the efforts of Sue and Kirstie to keep essential operations going in temporary office accommodation and with makeshift arrangements for telephone , printing , postal collection , etc .
I also acknowledge the concern and understanding demonstrated by branches and members . In short , you kept off our backs over these difficult
days and thanks to the great efforts of the office staff and the holiday break most members will have noticed few deficiencies in National Office service .
Membership invoicing is up to date but at the cost of commercially printing what would normally be done in-house . Range Officer and HUNTS instructor revalidation cards are at last being distributed , having been lost in the confused aftermath of the earthquake .
National Executive held its January meeting via a conference call rather than by a face-to-face meeting in Wellington . The effectiveness of this has to be appraised but the business of the association and its executive has progressed – if somewhat handicapped by the hearing of an aging executive ! On a really positive note , the accounting system introduced last year is starting to show benefits and the financial reports available at the meeting were clear and gave the Executive confidence in the accuracy of the system .
At this stage , with the expectation of soon returning to Collina Terrace , with experienced and committed staff and with sound financial systems we feel we are in a good position to face the future .
A new threat that suddenly was brought to our attention is chronic wasting disease ( CWD ), a thoroughly nasty disease of deer that has unexpectedly appeared in Europe . Advice we have been given is that if CWD reached New Zealand it would devastate our deer herds and obviously our hunting . The Ministry for Primary Industries and the deer farming industry have responded to the threat and information on prevention and ( God forbid ) recognition of the disease will be forthcoming .
Another threat is the growing anti-gun and anti-hunting sentiment that could morph into restrictive legislation affecting our recreation . Currently we possess a “ social licence ” to hunt and hunting is an accepted and valid reason to possess a firearm . However , there is a growing urban population with no knowledge of firearms who one day will finally lose patience with the small minority who misuse firearms . I ’ m referring here to the antics of mindless vandals who shoot up road signs , the almost daily reports of armed robberies and the reported concerns of land owners and managers faced with illegal hunting .
Take Auckland , with its huge voting population but a firearm owner ratio of only 1 in 70 of the population , compared with Tasman District where the firearm ownership ratio is 1 in 8 . This shows how we have real reason to be concerned that the traditional and still valid reasons for hunting and firearm ownership may be ignored by politicians and police looking for a quick fix for a perceived “ gun problem ”.
Thirdly , I am concerned at the potential for infighting that could fracture the unity built across the hunting scene in the vision of a Game Animal Council ( GAC ) that would resolve disputes and manage hunting for the benefit of all
4 NZ Hunting & Wildlife 196 - Autumn 2017