GOVERNMENT GAME CONTROL OPPOSED

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32118, 14 October 1969, Page 18

GOVERNMENT GAME CONTROL OPPOSED

Control of fish and game should be in the hands of an organisation elected by sportsmen, a meeting called by the North Canterbury Acclimatisation Society decided last evening.

Their resolution also said that such an organisation should be supervised by a Government department, but that the department should not get the licence fees.

The resolution was carried by 125 votes to 43. The meeting also unanimously decided to urge the Government to investigate further all aspects of trout farming before issuing any trout farming licence. Other resolutions carried unanimously demanded that the Government take stronger action for the preservation of wetlands, and opposed the sale of fishing and shooting rights in any form. The resolutions had been printed before the meeting, and the chairman (Mr F. Gorton) refused to accept amendments.

“Government control is not in the best interests of fish and game,” said Dr D. McK. Dickson, a council member. “We don’t want control by professional scientists and people like that" He said that acclimatisation societies were prepared to listen to professional advice but wanted to make the decisions themselves. Dr I. Blair said that there was a strong body of opinion that did not believe that the present pattern of control of wildlife would ensure conservation.

He said he could not agree that wildlife could be properly and scientifically controlled by laymen—any more than it could by scientists alone.

He said that the sort of wildlife service which operated in. Canada, the United States and Scotland would be

of advantage to New Zealand. Another speaker suggested that acclimatisation societies should raise licence fees to $l5 to make themselves more effective. Mr N. Voyce, chairman of the society’s fish committee, said that if licence fees went to a Government department, the bulk would be spent in the North Island. On the topic of trout farming, speakers warned about the danger of disease being introduced to fish populations, the likelihood of increased poaching, and the problem of New Zealand's trout fishing image being ruined by the sale of small trout overseas. Mr G. Mugford, chairman

of the game committee, said that the survival of game birds was continually being endangered by the failure to preserve the wetlands which were their habitat.

On the sale of fishing and shooting rights, speakers agreed that this was foreign to the New Zealand way of life.