SHOOTING SITTING BIRDS

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 255, 24 July 1937, Page 10

SHOOTING SITTING BIRDS

Not Done by Sportsmen POT-HUNTERS’ ACTIVITIES RESTRICTED . Auckland sportsmen are at present discussing a proposal mooted by acclimatisation authorities there, to prohibit the shooting of sitting Imus—cock pheasant on the grass, wild duck on tiie water. The average Wellington sportsman might say that such a tiling is not done, but members of the ■Wellington Acclimatisation Society interviewed by "The Dominion” yesterday made it clear that, regrettably, ills done by a. great many so-called sportsmen.

It lias been argued in Auckland that pot-hunters, shooting for their own tables or even for hotel cuisines, are playing a large part in causing a shortage of game. In Wellington there is no shortage of game; yesterday Mr. C. E. Aldridge, president of the acclimatisation society’s game committee, said that duck were everywhere reported to be numerous, and, as for pheasants, licence-holders who had never before managed to secure a cock had done so this year. In spite of the fact that conditions had been most unfavourable for pheasants, there had been a great many shot. But he was sorry to say that there were many shooting men who did not hesitate to fire on sitting birds, or at duck on the water, “I do not see how they will be able to put a stop to it,” he said. “As long as shooting men go out by themselves, nobody can possibly keep check of whether they shoot the birds sitting or flying.” Mr. Aldridge agreed that it was a most unfair practice, as it cost the acclimatisation society a good deal of money to rear a cock pheasant, and if it were shot down by such unsporting methods it robbed true sportsmen and society members of what they had paid for in taking out their licence. “Should Be Unnecessary.” “Who wants to shoot a sitting bird?” asked Mr. E. J. C. Wiflin, secretary of the Wellington Acclimatisation Society. “It should be unnecessary to have to impose regulations in order to prevent that sort of thing. The primary supposition is that a man who purchases a shooting licence is a sportsman.” Mr. Wiflin said that relatively little pot-hunting went on in the Wellington district, as it was illegal to sell game* either privately or in the shops, and this law was rigorously enforced. Formerly selling had been allowed, and there had been ,such extensive massacres of wild ducks that for the sake of preserving the game the licences, which had cost £5, had to be abolished. He understood, he said, that the hotels procured their wild duck and pheasants for the table from England,, in cold storage. Landowners in England who bred pheasants for shooting counted largely on the market as a source of revenue to balance the cost of rearing the birds. If one went shooting on an English country estate, no matter how many birds were shot —and one would, not be invited unless one were an expert shot —one was never presented with more than a brace or two of birds to take home; the greater part of the bag the landowner sent away to the market. Further discouragement was given here to tiie illegal sale of game, said Mr. 'Wiflin, by the fact that it was against tiie law to have game in one’s possession, whether in cool storage or not, more than a week after the close of the season. None the less, in spite of these strict regulations restricting -commercialisation of the sport of shooting, there were undoubtedly a great many people who did sell their, bag to hotels and similar buyers; and these people did not hesitate to shoot duck or pheasant on the ground or the water.

A leading Wellington poulterer stated that it was practically impossible to buy game birds in the shops. To buy or sell them was against the law. If wild duck, or pheasant, figured on a hotel menu it had been obtained either as a gift from some sportsman who had more than lie could use, oi’ had been imported from overseas. China was a country from which game birds of high quality could be imported extremely cheaply, being shipped by tiie Japanese steamers which trade direct to New Zealand. But, said the poulterer, although it was against the law, he believed that quite a trade in local game birds was carried on sub rosa.