FOUR BOYS IN COURT

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27664, 21 May 1955, Page 6

FOUR BOYS IN COURT

STROKE HAULING IN AVON RIVER RANGER’S BINOCULARS AND CAR KEY THROWN AWAY Four boys, aged from 14 to 15 years, were before the Children’s Court yesterday for breaches of the Fisheries Act, involving stroke-hauling, fishing in a prohibited area in the Avon river near the Bridge of Remembrance, and a charge of obstruction. The Court comprised Mr Raymond Ferner, S.M., and his associates, Mrs T. Green and Mr W. C. Colee. Mr T. A. Gresson, solicitor for the North Canterbury Acclimatisation Society, said that in previous years the rangers had been content to issue warnings in similar cases, but this year a number of boys had proved very defiant and abusive, and complaints about their behaviour had forced the society to take legal action. In one instance, a boy who had been caught stroke-hauling used filthy language and after struggling unsuccessfully to retain his rod, rushed oyer to the ranger’s car and threw his binoculars and ignition key out on to the roadway.

When one of the other boys had been yarned by an elderly woman not to fish near the Bridge of Remembrance, he had threatened her with a knife and said he would “slit her gizzard,” said Mr Gresson. Jie was later made to apologise, but this sort of conduct must be discouraged, and the society had brought these cases to warn other youths of their obligation to comply with the fishing laws and behave like decent anglers. The Court admonished the boys concerned and warned them that any recurrence of this sort of behaviour would be seriously regarded. One of them was placed under supervision for one year. It was the ranger’s duty to see that the relevant fishing regulations were complied with, and the Court would not permit them to be defied or obstructed.