GAME SEASONS

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25713, 27 January 1949, Page 2

GAME SEASONS

RECOMMENDATIONS TO MINISTER SUGGESTED BAG LIMITS The following dates for the 1949 open season for game were recommended to the council of the North Canterbury Acclimatisation Society last evening i by the society’s game committee: — ■ Cock pheasants, Californian quail, i chukor, grey duck, mallard duck, I spoonbill duck and paradise duck: May 17 to June 6, inclusive; black swan, Canadian goose and pukeko, May 7 to July 3. inclusive. These recommendations were approved by the council, which will submit them to the Minister of Internal Affairs ( Mr W. E. Parry). Bag limits were recommended as follows: duck, all species, 15 head, including a limit of 10 grey and spoonbill duck combined and a limit of five paradise duck; Californian quail, 10 head; cock pheasants, three head: chukor, 10 head; black swan, Canadian goose and pukeko, no limit. The bag limits as suggested by the committee were approved by the council for submission to the Minister.

The extra iponth in the season for swans and geese had been requested because the bird population on Lake Ellesmere had become lop-sided, said Mr R. S. Taylor, chairman of the committee. Swans, geese, and pukeko were depriving other game of feed and w r ere reported to have damaged crops. The only alteration in the bag limits recommended by the committee this year was that last year there had been a limit of 20 on pukeko, said Mr Taylor. After some debate, the hours of shooting were recommended to be between one hour before sunrise and one hour after sunset. The time of sunrise and sunset at the beginning and end of the season will be printed on the society’s licences. , Feeding, it was suggested, should be prohibited during the month before the opening of the season.