Men fined for shooting sitting ducks

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33932, 27 August 1975, Page 11

Men fined for shooting sitting ducks

/From Our Oten Reporter)

NELSON. Defence submissions on law were discarded by Mr K. H. J. Headifen, S.M., in the Nelson Magistrate’s Court yesterday morning, when he convicted four men on breaches of the Wild Life Act.

The four men, Frank Raymond Hayes, retired, of Richmond, Barry John McLaren, a contractor, of Wakefield, William Albert Trevor Rainbow, a mechanic, of Richmond, and Mervyn Bruce Small, a publican, of Appleby, denied having shot ducks not in flight. Hayes, McLaren and Rainbow also denied having hunted, and killed more than the, prescribed limit of paradise ducks. - On the charge of shooting ducks not in flight, all men were fined $2O, and ordered to pay solicitor’s fees of $lO, and court costs of $5. On the second charge, the three

concerned were fined $4O, and ordered to pay court costs of $5, and solicitor’s fees of $2O.

The Magistrate rejected a prosecution application for forfeiture of tour shotguns, saying that it would be an injustice to make such an order.

The prosecutions were brought by the Nelson Acclimatisation Society for whom Mr H. W. Riddoeh appeared. The defendants were represented by Mr T. A. De Cleene (Palmerston North). Evidence was given by the society’s ranger. Douglas Victor Zumbach, that as a result of information received

he travelled to the Manila district, which was within the society’s area, and secreted himself at a good vantage point about 50ft from, and slightly above, a man-made lake.

From this point he saw the defendants from three miamias, shoot ducks on the water, and in the air. The pattern appeared to be that the shooters would allow the ducks to fly in unmolested, and shoot them on the water, and when they flew off again. The defendants McLaren, Hayes and Rainbow hid the paradise ducks they collected in scrub, and Rainbow had two hiding places, one about 100 yards from where he was shooting, said witness. When he finally confronted them, he asked Rainbow, Hayes and McLaren to retrieve the ducks they had hidden, and he told each that he was presuming that, since they had hidden the birds, the birds were the bag of each man. They agreed with this, although McLaren had said that he did not think he had shot so many paradise ducks.

Mr Zumbaeh said that he was unable to assert that Small had shot more than the limit, but he had definitely shot birds on the water.

In all, 17 paradise ducks were recovered. Four of these were recovered by Hayes, five by McLaren, and four by Rainbow. The limit on paradise ducks, as stated on the licence, was two.

After cross-examining Mr Zambuch, Mr De Cleene submitted that there was no evidence on which a conviction could be entered against McLaren and Rainbow — who had been in the same miamia—for hunting and killing ducks. There was evidence of possession, but not evidence that linked each, individually, with individual kills. This submission was rejected by the Magistrate. Mr De Cleene submitted then that there was no evidence on three other points of law, but in summarising the case, the Magistrate rejected these, too.