The recent controversy regarding the shooting of kereru reminded me of this excerpt from J. Hay's Reminiscences of Earliest Canterbury (principally Banks’ Peninsula) and its Settlers published in 1915. Kereru were favoured as easy targets.
Several in succession could be shot from the same tree. This bird was much in request for the table of the pioneers, and it was easily procured when wanted…pigeons were best stewed or made into a pie, and pigeon soup was king of the bouillons.
Susannah
Chaney, who worked for the Manson family, remembered Samuel Manson returning from the bush with the muzzle of his
gun laden with native pigeons.
Fortunately the native pigeon population seems to be stable and possibly on the rise in WhakaraupÅ.
