To stand a chance, a farmer needed nimble legs and reliable dogs at his side.
Even fishers weren’t safe, as seen in a Bay of Plenty Times article from 1937, where a boar attacked a boat.
Big wild boar caught
Heavy toll of lambs
New Zealand Herald, March 31, 1937
[By telegraph—own correspondent] New Plymouth, Tuesday
A wild boar, about 13 years old, estimated to weigh five hundredweight and being 6ft. 6in. in length, was captured and killed in the district up the Mokau River by an Easter hunting party.
For 10 years this boar is said to have slaughtered lambs to the value of some hundreds of pounds.
It was brought down by five dogs after dragging them for some distance and was finally shot.
The hunting party were out for three days and captured 29 wild pigs.
Boar attacks boat
True fishing story
Bay of Plenty Times, April 9, 1937
An extraordinary fishing story in which the central figure is not an outsize fish but a wild boar is told by a Palmerston North fisherman as having been experienced by Mr Jack Power, a New Plymouth hotelkeeper, at Lake Taupo at Easter.
Mr Power was fishing close in on the western side of the lake when a wild boar came out of the bush, swam out and attacked the side of the launch which was in shallow water.
Mr Power killed the boar, and, realising that without the carcase anyone would probably regard the story as just another of the fishing kind, he towed it in with him to convince the unbelievers.
Wild boar more than eight feet long
Rotorua Morning Post, July 25, 1946
Wjangarei, Last Night.
An outsize in wild pigs was shot by Mr. Henry Cochrane, of Victoria Valley, on the property of Mr. S. Edwards on the lower slopes of the Mangamuka Range.
A boar, it was more than 8ft long and stood about 3ft 6in.
The tusks placed together formed a circle 19 inches in circumference.
Mr. Cochrane said it was the largest wild pig he had seen.
Previous attempts had been made to run the boar to earth, and Mr. Edwards was anxious to see its career ended before the commencement of the lambing season.
Big Wild Boar Killed
Central Hawke’s Bay Press, December 2, 1949
Measuring nearly eight feet in length and weighing almost 5001b, a wild boar has been captured by two brothers, Evan and Bob Hayes, on their father’s property at Retaruke.
The killing of this animal was an event in the district, as the boar has been in the vicinity for over four years and had evaded many pig hunting enthusiasts.
It was one of the biggest wild pigs killed in the Taumarunui district.
24 lambs killed by wild boar at Whakamarama
Bay of Plenty Times, December 8, 1949
(Times Correspondent)
An armed watch by a Whakamarama farmer ended when he shot a wild boar which had killed 24 lambs out of a flock of 50.
A poisoned carcass, designed as a bait for the marauder, only resulted in the loss of a dog.
The boar, which showed great cunning, would have been a dangerous animal to have met unarmed.
There have been many instances of the threat to stock from wild boars and as soon as one is dealt with another is reported.
Farmers on the edge of the bush have learned the value of good dogs, not only for hunting but for keeping the boars from domestic stock.
About a year ago a farmer lost two sows.
Tracks told the story, but the sows never came back.
Early one morning the farmer surprised a wild boar in his pig yard.
His dog, a particularly good one, tackled the boar and the farmer pluckily settled the fray, wielding a heavy slasher.
- Source: Papers Past
