OPENING ON MAY 1

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22621, 26 April 1948, Page 2

OPENING ON MAY 1

SHOOTING SEASON AMMUNITION AVAILABLE With the coming of dawn next Saturday morning numerous Gisborne sportsmen will be crouched in mai-mais along the edges of lagoons and lakes in the district hoping for overcast skies and the corning of the elusive duck, on the opening of the 1948 shooting season. According to the annual report of the East Coast Acclimitisation Society, the number of grey duck in the district is decreasing, but present indications are that many sportsmen will risk spending a Saturday morning, possibly getting wet through, in order to try to obtain the limit bag of 10. Pheasants, of which the society liberated 300 young birds last year, should be reasonably plentiful this season. Ammunition is understood to be in plentiful supply. Regulations concerning the shooting season for imported and native game in the East Coast Acclimitisation Society’s area were contained in the latest Gazette. Sportsmen will have an open season of three weeks to shoot grey, spoonbill. Mallard, and paradise duck, black swan, and pukeko, the season extending from May Ito 23. A longer season, from May 1 to July 31, is declared for cock pheasants, and Californian, Virginian and Australian quail. Daily bags allow for a maximum of six cock pheasants; 10 head in all of grey and spoonbill duck; five paradise duck; eight pukeko; 15 head in all of grey, paradise, mallard and spoonbill duck; or 25 head in all of cock pheasants, Californian, Virginian and Aus tralian quail, grey, spoonbill and paradise duck, and black swan. Three areas in the East Coast society’s district may not be shot over during the opening season. They are part of the Hauomatuku and Mangaone blocks, the property of Mr. William Morris; the Gisborne Borough Council's waterworks reserve; and several blocks in the Waingaromia district, the property of the J. T. A. Orr estate.