SHOOTING SEASON

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 99, 28 April 1928, Page 10

SHOOTING SEASON

OPENS ON TUESDAY PROSPECTS GOOD Such weather as to-day's would meet with the approval of duck shooters on Tuesday when the season opens. From all accounts it has been a good breeding season, and ducks and swans arc said to be plentiful on Lake Wairarapa and on all tlio lagoons up the ceast. * Tlio season commences not earlier than an hour beforo sunrise. This year there are two innovations. Every license is liable'to inspection by the holder of a.license, so that anybody discovered in quest of n.'itivo or imported game by the holder of a license is open to a friendly request to produce it, the same as has been the case with angling licenses. The inquiring person need not be a ranger or honorary ranger. Another change from last year is tho removal of protection in the Wellington acclimatisation district from pukeko for 14 days from tho opening inclusive. Pukcko are very numerous in parts of tho district, and thcro have been complaints from farmers'jf damage in several instances. Sonio time ago pukeko were scarco in tho Wellington district, but they have increased rapidly under protection, and it is not considered that a little thinning out will do any harm. They aro certainly tame in many places, and one sportsman suggested facetiously this morning that they should lie open to "shanghais only." Roughly 1000 pheasants were liberated by tho Wellington Acclimatisation Society since last season, and there is a sprinkling of these birds all over tho society's district. Quail aro numerous in certain well-covered valleys. The license restricts the bag to twenty head of native game, live oi.ly of which may be swans, . ' In (lie Wellington district nobody* may shoot deer without a license, except those persons on whoso property deer herds have become a nuisance, and they njust obtain permits. .Even they, while t(iey may make use of the venison and hides, aro not permitted to retain the antlers, without a stalking license.