SDMF Newsletter 2002

Readers are reminded that articles printed in this publication are the personal opinion of the writer and may differ from the official views of the Sambar Deer Management Foundation Inc.

Before starting the report on last season I again thank those Companies and Departments who make access available to the land for the public ballot. Without the continued support and assistance of these organisations and their personnel the public ballot could not go ahead in its current form. Those in particular I am thanking are:-

This year the number of ballot blocks was reduced to 120 from 126. The reason for this was on going forest operation in Waitarere. It would be unsafe to put hunters too close to these operations. The ballot blocks are from Waitarere in the south to Harakeke in the north. In addition the hunters who drew Santoft Forest were again given the opportunity to have a companion hunt with them as there is increasing damage in this area. The companions are required to take out a licence. This year all 30 Santoft hunters opted to take companions. This is the second time that we have done this and the number of deer taken was increased. At the ballot we drew 15 reserves to cover for those hunters who for one reason or another are unable to hunt on their allocated weekend. Nine of these reserves were given an opportunity to hunt. The ballot attracted 959 applicants. This is down on the last couple of years but there is still strong interest in the public ballot which we hope will continue. This year only a few applications for the ballot arrived late which is very pleasing. I do not like rejecting these but it takes time for the applications to be processed and details made ready for the ballot so please send your applications in early.

While mentioning the cutoff time I must emphasise that it is VERY IMPORTANT to have your ballot application in before the time stated. The applications close and ballots MUST be received by 5.00pm on July 5th 2002. This does not mean posted on the 5th. As there is NO advantage in when your ballot application is received PLEASE don't make me say No to you.

For the last season we issued a total of 317 licenses, 150 for ballot blocks and 167 for private land. The numbers issued for private land are up on previous years. Part of this is due to increased interest and also to more compliance in taking up licences by hunters on private land. The percentage of licence returns from hunters is down again this year to 65.3%, 81% (122) from ballot block hunters but only 51% (85) from private land hunters. Hunters need to remember that sending back a return IS A CONDITION of the licence.

The information received on these returns is important to the Foundation. These returns give us information on the health of the herd on both ballot land and private land. It also gives us information on the hunters, the amount of funds they produce for the local economy and the amount of time they are putting into the annual hunt. We again offered a carrot to hunters last year with a prize draw for those who have the returns in by due date. This is obviously not working so maybe we need to start penalising those who do not send their return in.

During the season we were given reports of 52 animals taken by hunters while hunting Sambar. This is well up on last year and hopefully will continue. Three of the animals taken were Reds. This was made up of 19 (1 red) hinds and 32 (2 reds) stags. Hunters on ballot land took 22 animals, 1 Waitarere, 11 Santoft, 2 Tangimoana, 6 from Moutoa and 2 reds from Harakeke. Due to the number of hunters not putting returns in it make it very difficult to ascertain the correct numbers. Hunters are asked to contact a Foundation monitor if they take an animal even if they are not required to contact MAF.

Hunters saw 530 Sambar during the season and many also saw animals on their research trips. These were made up of 118 young animals, 128 stags and 284 hinds. On ballot blocks 175 deer were seen by hunters. The balance were seen by hunters on private land. The numbers of all animals were down on last year and the Foundation will be monitoring this during the current season to see if it is a trend. It is important that hunters fill in the information on the season return as accurately as possible. This information is important in the continuing management of your Sambar herd.

Hunters are certainly spending plenty of time out there looking even if we did have some lousy weather. A total of 3604 hours (up on last year) were spent by hunters actively hunting and they also spent some 1264 hours (up on last year) researching their hunting areas before going hunting. This year the fastest successful hunt was on a private block and took 15 minutes. Two hunters on ballot blocks had their animals in 30 minutes. On average hunters spent 17.4 hours hunting and 6.11 hours on research. Hunters estimate they spent $61559.00 in relation to their hunting, this is an average of $297.39 for each hunter. If this was spread over all licenses issued rather than just those who sent their returns in the amount spent would be $94272.63.

Every year we field comments and reports about problems with hunters on the Rangitikei river bed. This is potentially a very dangerous place to hunt so it attracts special conditions. To help those wishing to hunt in this area I will outline the position.

The consents to hunt in this area are controlled by horizon's m.w. out of their Marton office. They will issue consent to hunt on the river only where a person has an access consent from the land owner adjacent to the river area to be hunted. This means that to hunt in this area you need the access consent of the land owner bordering on the river. With this consent you then approach horizon's m.w. for their consent to hunt the river area directly adjacent to the land owners boundary. You may only hunt this area and NOT outside it. There are NO permits to hunt the full length of the river as one party tried to tell another last year.

The Foundation still issues the actual hunting licence. However NO licence will be issued for this area unless we see both the access consent from the land owner and horizon's m.w. Due to past problems there will be increased policing of this area and permits will be checked. Those without the proper consents may will find their Sambar hunting licence revoked.

SAMBAR DEER MANAGEMENT FOUNDATION INC. STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE For The Period Ended 31 January 2002
Income
Donations	75.00
Interest	1743.04
Raffle - Ballot Night	109.00
Subs	4720.00	6650.09
Expenses
A.G.M. Costs - Advert	187.23
Bank Cost	17.15
Consultant	3464.54
Donation Made	100.00
I D Cards	23.36
Meeting Costs	215.59
Postage	1222.00
Stationary	692.56
Web Site Costs	149.90
Tree Damage - Santoft	1000.00	7075.38
Net Surplus (Deficit)		-425.29

HUNT ADMINISTRATION ACCOUNT For The Period Ended 31 January 2002
Ballot Fees	4257.78
Licence Fee	5635.56
Received GST	1236.66	11130
Ballot Costs
Data Input	559.02
Hall Hire	20.00
Postage & Stationary	437.44
Hunt Administration Costs
Advertising	1491.01
Data Pack Bits	72.72
Locks & Repairs	274.53
Photocopy, Postage & Stationary	1767.50
Tolls	412.56
News Letter & Report
Envelopes	310.00
Postage	1271.20
Printing	1988.00	8603.98
GST Paid		1061.73
GST To DoC		174.93
Transfer To DoC Reserve		1289.36

SAMBAR DEER MANAGEMENT FOUNDATION INC. STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION As At 31 January 2002
Members Equity

Opening Balance		26095.05
Net Surplus (Deficit) From Statement of Financial Position	-425.29
		25669.76

This is represented by:
Current Assets

Bank Accounts & Term Deposits	33716.25
Key Bond	200.00
Paid In Advance - Consultant	2000.00
Resident Withholding Tax	85.51
Stock On Hand - Prepaid Envelopes	1194.00
		37195.76
Fixed Assets

Microscope	1119.38
Jaw Drill	268.00
		1387.38
Less Current Liabilities

Prepaid Licences	20.00
Sundry Creditors	577.06
		597.06
Term Liabilities

DOC Reserve Fund	11026.96
Transfer From Hunt Administration Account	1289.36
		12316.32
		25669.76

The Foundations Web Site is proving reasonably popular with some 1300 visits to it. It has certainly created some interest from overseas. We have had requests for information from several knife makers, a couple of groups with similar interests to ourselves from Australia and several people from America wanting information on Sambar Deer. The most unusual would be a request for Deer Milk from a Dairy Factory in South Africa. Members of the committee were not keen on rounding up some Sambar and milking them!

The site has had some additions recently. Last years news letter has been added and about 70 new photos have been scanned and most have been added. We hope to have more there soon. The most interesting thing added are maps to the Public Ballot blocks. There is a basic North Island location map. Click on an area and a general location map comes up. The Blocks are shown. Click on a block and the map of that block appears. Have fun!

We actually have a problem that we had not anticipated. We may have too much info on the site. We are only paying for a certain size site with our host. This was thought to be enough, however we now find that with that we want to put up we may not have enough room.

Items to be added in the future will be photos of items that we are offering for sale. At present these are our monograms and T-Shirts. You will not be able to actually pay for them on the site but an order can be made and this will be confirmed with the cost details.

When you get a chance visit the site and let us know what you think or anything that you would like to see. We have had quite a bit of feed back about how impressed people are with the layout and construction of our site. The Foundation offers its thanks to our Webmaster. If you are thinking of having a site created how about contacting him through our site and getting a quote for doing the work. I am sure that you will be impressed with what he can do for you.