Runholders To ‘Get Tough’ With Trespassers

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31333, 1 April 1967, Page 1

Runholders To ‘Get Tough’ With Trespassers

North Canterbury ruriholders say they will adopt a “get-tough” policy against shooters trespassing on their properties. They have decided that anybody caught trespassing on their properties will be prosecuted. They hope that stock losses will thus be reduced.

About 30 highcountry runholders yesterday met at the Poplars station, in the Lewis Pass, to discuss with Detective Sergeant E. J. Stackhouse their powers against trespassing shooters. Considerable stock losses, which they blame on trespassing shooters, were shqwn in the last autumn muster, and the same result is expected this autumn. The runholders complained that shooters using spotlights had killed cattle and horses, and had fired bullets close to men working. “I will not tolerate anybody coming on to the property to shoot,” said Mr W. Gray, of Glynn Wye Station. Last winter, he said, he lost eight cows in calf, each valued at £45. “They were all shot by spotlighters trespassing,” he said. Mr Gray said he also lost about 300 of a mob of 1000

two-tooths put in accessible areas after shearing. “It’s been the same for years, Those responsible are a bunch of young louts and other irresponsible shooters who use utility vehicles to get access.” Mr C. A. Nurse, of Lake Taylor, said that in one night last winter he lost six two-year-old heifers valued at £35 each. He expected he would be short in stock numbers after mustering this autumn. “It makes your blood boil,” he said. Mr M. R. Murchison, of Lake Coleridge station, said that stock thefts in their area were a thing the runholder had had to live with over a number of years. 300 HOGGETS LOST “It goes on all the time,” Mr Murchison said. “Last year We put out 2900 hoggets for Wintering in paddocks near the road. When we mustered in later in the year for shearing there were only 2600. “If 'I go out to investigate tights on the property at night I take a loaded shotgun with me,” he said. Mr A. Qlenn, of Teraka Downs, said that when he Was mustering recently shots hit the ground near him. "Trespassing shooters are dangerous,” he said. ■ Mr P. I. Burbury, of Sherwood, said what was needed was some violent publicity. “It’s getting worse: they remove gates from hinges, and cut fences if they cannot get

through. If they cannot find the keys for huts they bust through the wall,” he Said. The law of trespass was weak, Detective Sergeant Stackhouse told the. runholders. The fact that a person was found on a property did not make him guilty of an offence. A person committed a trespass if he did not leave when told to, or if he had passed a no-trespass sign. Trespassing in the high country was a cause of major concern, and the police would give runholders every assistance. To trespass, a person must realise he was trespassing or refuse to leave once he had been told to do so. If, after being told to leave, he refused to do so, the occupier of the land could use reasonable force to remove him. Detective Sergeant Stack-

house said that runholders should take the names of any persons found on their properties, or the number of their cars, and report the matter to the police.

Shooting with a spotlight was a lazy man’s way, he said. Anyone in a vehicle on a road, even a paper road, who carried any flrearins with a bullet in the breach or in the magazine was also guilty of an offence. “Stand no nonsense from them—spotlighting is illegal,’’ Detective Sergeant Stackhouse said. The problem of trespassing on high-country properties had become worse since a price had been placed on deer carcases. Anyone who wished to shoot, tramp, or fish on a property should have the decency to ask the manager’s permission, he said.