SPORT AND THE STATE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 196, 21 August 1939, Page 6

SPORT AND THE STATE.

Acclimatisation societies are becoming perturbed at signs and portents which point to the possibility of the State taking over their functions and controlling all fishing and shooting in the Dominion. If there be anything in the suggestion the societies should lose no time in making their own case clear, and they have a good case to make. Their work has fnade New Zealand the sporting country that it is; they have stocked the rivers with trout, introduced game birds, and have controlled as far as possible by their ranger and honorary ranger system the unsporting section which shoots out of season or which attacks protected native game. They have made mistakes in their importations, but not all the errors that have been made in this direction can be traced to them, and they have learned by experience. Control over their activities is now adequate, and to disband the societies or so to limit their activities as to make them ineffective would be a retrograde step. Experience of the Council of Physical Welfare and Recreation during the two years or so that it has been operating (or marking time) would not encourage anyone to believe that the State is capable of handling this or any other branch of sport effectively.