GAME SEASON

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26394, 12 April 1951, Page 3

GAME SEASON

CHANGE OPPOSED IN NORTH CANTERBURY ACCLIMATISATION SOCIETY DISCUSSION If the game season had been cancelled, the society would have lost revenue of £2OOO to £3OOO, said the president (Mr W. J. Mac Gibbon) at a meeting of the council of the North Canterbury Acclimatisation Society last evening. He was referring to th® suggestion of the Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr W. A. Bodkin) that th® opening of the game season should ba postponed or the season cancelled altogether because of a shortage of ammunition caused by the waterfront hold-up. ‘ The Minister had now decided, according to a newspaper statement, that there would be no change in the season, said Mr Mac Gibbon. However, no official notification of the Minister’s decision had yet been received from the South Island Cobntil of Acclimatisation Societies, with which th® Minister had originally communicated. Some of the major societies had been charged with building up too much rri'oney, said Mr Mac Gibbon, but it wa® necessary that they should have reserves on hand. The North Canterbury council was told that the South Island council had been advised that in the Ndrth Canterbury district there were sufficient stocks of ammunition, and no change in the original opening date seemed warranted.

The executive of the council was empowered to press for a normal season, if the official announcement varied from the Minister’s reported decision.