Deer industry pioneer no 'cowboy'

The late Jim Kane with a deer shot in Fiordland during the pioneering days of the venison industry. PHOTO: SUPPLIED

The late Jim Kane might well have jumped from helicopters and wrestled deer to the ground in the mountains of Fiordland, but he was no ''cowboy''.

That was the view expressed to the Otago Daily Times this week by his widow, Barbara.

Mr Kane died in 1989 after his helicopter developed a mechanical fault while he was deer-shooting in the Cameron Mountains.

Yesterday, Mrs Kane unveiled a plaque at Wanaka Airport dedicated to those, like Mr Kane, who died during the pioneering days of the New Zealand deer industry.

She said her husband started in the deer industry as a 16-year-old ''ground hunter'', ''shooting for meat'' in the Grebe Valley of the Fiordland National Park.

He then worked for Sir Tim Wallis' venison recovery operation, teaming up with top Te Anau pilot Bill Black.

The pair began developing techniques to capture live deer, including using a long bamboo pole with a tranquilliser on the end.

They also used to ''bulldog'' live deer, Mrs Kane said.

''The shooter had to ... jump on the deer and tie it up, and the helicopter would come back and pick it up. Jim did a lot of that in his time.''

Mr Kane eventually obtained his helicopter licence and went out on his own, operating in the national park with two helicopters and a boat.

Mrs Kane, who was originally from London, met her future husband when she arrived in Te Anau in 1985 to work a lambing beat. She accompanied him on deer recovery trips, picking up fawns or nets for net guns.

Mrs Kane said a crash in deer prices led to a downsizing of the live deer recovery industry, and Mr Kane even began exploring, as an alternative, live capture of hares for the Italian market. Red tape and flying costs meant that did not go ahead.

Mrs Kane said her husband survived several crashes during his career, including one when he and his shooter had to rescue themselves by building a raft out of oil drums to paddle through one of the Fiordland sounds.

''He was very proud of his record of never injuring ... any of his shooters during his whole career,'' Mrs Kane said. That included the crash in which he was killed. His shooter was, at that moment, on the ground preparing a load of venison to be lifted off the mountain.

Mrs Kane said her husband had avoided becoming part of the media story around the helicopter ''venison wars'', as they became known.

''In that time, a lot of the pilots were made out to be cowboys - that whole danger thing - whereas Jim was actually very methodical and careful.