PROHIBITION OF COURSING

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27147, 17 September 1953, Page 10

PROHIBITION OF COURSING

LEGISLATION TO BE CONSIDERED (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, September 16. Whether legislation should be introduced to prohibit coursing would receive the consideration of the Government. said the Minister in charge of Police (Mr W. H. Fortune) in a written reply today to a question by Mr H. R. Lake (Government. Lyfelton). The Minister’s statement was among replies to members’ questions circulated in the House of Representatives today. Mr Lake had asked the Minister whether he thought the existence of coursing was likely to assist New Zealand’s reputation in sport, and whether he would feel justified in introducing legislation to prohibit it. Mr Fortune said that, where there was evidence of cruelty to animals, action might be taken under .the Police Offences Act; but so far as he was aware no prosecution in connexion with coursing in New Zealand had been initiated by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals or any other organisation or person. S.P.C.A. CONFERENCE IN NOVEMBER (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, September 16. The Dominion executive of the New Zealand Federation of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals today agreed that the question of live hare coursing should be postponed for consideration by delegates at the annual meeting of the Dominion S.P.C.A. in November.

The executive also decided that all member societies should make the fullest inquiry in their own districts into live hare coursing.