Eradicating pests and shooting up funds for rural teachers is the aim of the upcoming inaugural Kaihere School hunting competition.
The event, hosted by the rural school’s Parent Teacher Association (PTA), will load at 5pm on May 12 until final shots on May 14 before the weigh-in at noon at Kaihere School.
PTA member Clare Ward told The Profile the event was part of its target to raise $15,000 each year to keep its two full-time teachers to provide education for the school’s 30 pupils.
“We’ve been funding our teachers and trying to keep our teachers solidly for four to five days a week within the school rather than having to get relief teachers in to cover for those days that aren’t funded by the ministry,” she said.
“We are short of the required [student] numbers to get funding for an extra teacher, this means the government only funds us for one and a half full time teachers.
“Kaihere School is also a silver enviroschool, so we’re likely to pull [the competition] in with the guidelines with DOC to make New Zealand pest free by 2050.”
Clare said the competition was split into five categories, including pests such as possums, rats and stoats for mini hunters, the Big Three, which is deer, duck and pigs, and two separate categories for deer and pigs with subcategories for heaviest deer and pig, best deer head and biggest pig tusks.
“Possums are really bad around this area and rats… I’ve got a trapping tunnel that we’ve built and we’ve been shifting it around to see what sort of rodents are around,” she said.
“Wild pigs come in and root up our paddocks, so that’s a problem on farms.”
All hunters will take their kill unless they discuss it with the school beforehand, and possums will be plucked and the school will sell the fur to raise extra funds.
Clare said there was no boundary for where hunters and trappers could compete, all competitors shooting must be accompanied by someone with a gun licence and kids taking part in trapping must be accompanied by a guardian aged over 16 years. “We’ve got the Thames Valley Deerstalkers Association coming in to do all the weigh-ins and support us with that, and we’ve had DOC backing us and they’ve also given us 200 traps and educational material,” she said.
There’s also a colouring competition for those kids who don’t have the means to go hunting and when the weigh-in is on there’s going to be sausage sizzles as well.”
The grand prizes include: Heaviest Pig, $500 cash prize and a whole ham; Heaviest Deer, homekill fees valued at $250 and a $400 barbecue.
DETAILS: To register and for more information about the the competition visit pta.kaihere@gmail.com.
