Magistrate’s Court Effort To Keep Birds Off Crop Brings Fine Of £5

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28658, 7 August 1958, Page 14

Magistrate’s Court Effort To Keep Birds Off Crop Brings Fine Of £5

A man who claimed that he had authorised his two sons to shoot at ducks and geese on a lagoon near a crop of windrowed barley, ready for heading on his property at Southbridge, to prevent the birds eating and damaging the crop was convicted and fined £5 in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday on a charge of aiding and assisting the commission of an offence.

He was Will Free Reese, a farm manager. His two sons, Allan Free Reese and John Gilbert Reese were each convicted and ordered to pay court costs on charges of hunting game out of season. All pleaded not guilty.

Mr G. A. Nicholls, S.M., was on the Bench. Mr A: D. Holland appeared for the North Canterbury Acclimatisation Society and Mr G. S. Brockett for the defendants. Ernest Frederick » lan Blackmore, a ranger employed by the society, said that on February 26, he found the two sons, with shotguns, shooting at ducks and Canadian geese on Coopers Lagoon near the Blackwater Estate, which Reese managed. One duck was shot and wounded or killed When approached, Reese said he was responsible for the actions of his sons which were directed towards keeping the birds off the barley. Told that he could obtain a permit for disturbing game in such circumstances Reese said he had not bothered because it would take two or three days. Reese said that the barley had been windrowed for some days but because of the weather, heading was not possible. In similar conditions in 1943 he had lost many acres of his crop for the same reason. On that occasion he applied for a permit and had to wait five days before it arrived from Wellington. The lagoon had been opened by the Ellesmere County Council on his request to decrease the acreage of water and the duck population, but because of southerly weather it had closed up again. On the day in question he had seen about 400 geese on the paddock and as the only way to prevent damage to the crop was to keep the birds on the wing, he decided that night to scare them off by shooting at them. He bred and kept ducks for table use on the farm. The Magistrate said that although the cases were different from the usual ones of their kind, convictions would have to be entered. Reese knew a permit should be obtained and although there was no intention to eat the game the definition of “hunting” in the Wild Life Act was sufficiently wide to cover any war-like operation against game. (Before Mr A. P. Blair, S.M.) CHARGE DISMISSED “It has been proved that the sheep were infested with lice and therefore the onus is on the defendants to show two things. They must show to the satisfaction of the Court that they had no knowledge of the infestation and also that they had taken reasonable care to prevent the sheep from becoming infested. I think the defendants have done so in this case,” said the Magistrate when he dismissed a charge against Thomas Arnold Judson and Robert Kenneth Burne Judson (trading as Judson Brothers), of exposing lice-infected sheep for sale at the Addington saleyards oh January 29. A plea of not guilty was entered by Mr H. W. Thomson who appeared for the defendants. James Gibson, a stock inspector employed by the Department of Agriculture, said that on January 29 he inspected three sheep in each of five pens belonging to the defendants and found lice on sheep in each pen. He admitted that the sheep could have become infested in the truck on the way to the saleyards. Mr Thomson said that the sheep had been inspected for ticks before leaving for the saleyards and no sign of either ticks or lice was found. LICE-INFESTED SHEEP ‘‘The defendant has failed in the onus that was upon him and ac-

cordingly he must be convicted,” said the Magistrate when he fined O. J. Osborne £2 on a charge of, exposing lice-infested sheep at the Addington saleyards on Mayj 21. I A plea of not guilty was entered' by Osborne, who conducted his' own defence. |

James Gibson, a stock inspector employed by the Department of Agriculture, gave evidence that he inspected Osborne’s sheep at the Addington saleyards on May 21 and found them to be lightly infested with lice. Osborne said that it had not been proved that the sheep were his and it also had not been proved that the sheep were lice infested. He said that to the best of his ability he had seen that the sheep were not infested with lice.

(Before Mr G. A. Nicholls, S.M.) The following farmers were convicted and fined £5 on charges of exposing lice-infested sheep for sale at Addington market:—L. Maginness, J. F. B. Stronach, Henry Dynes Woods, J. F. Dobbin, Dorothy May Edge, Walter Sanford Bromley Judkins, J. N. Boag. H. A. Boyle, and B. H. Brown.