PRESERVATION OF NATIVE GAME AND FISH.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1321, 22 November 1864, Page 3

PRESERVATION OF NATIVE GAME AND FISH.

(From the Otago Mail, Oct. 31.)

It is a matter of surprise that tip to the present time no care has been taken by either the General Assembly or the Provincial Councils of New Zealand for the preservation of the native game and fish with which the colony is stocked. The fish is abundant, and the species are numerous, but the feathered tribes that can be by any means brought under the head of "game" are comparatively limited, on this very account it is our special interest to prevent their extinction. We have repeatedly referred to the wholesale and culpable destruction of fish of all kinds. Flounders, little larger than a five shilling piece, are commonly hawked about; oysters,, in season and out of season, at all periods of the year, are openly gathered and sold; and if the same reckless waste is allowed to go on for a few years, we shall have 110 fish at all of these kinds. As to oysters, there breeding time is so well known that no difficulty at all need be encountered in fixing the fenced months, and with other fish, flounders for example, regulations not only as to the size of meshes in fishermen's nets, but imposing a penalty on the sale of any less than of a certain size, could easily be made. By this means not only would the public buy fish of an eatable size, but at the same time it would be allowing the small fry to grow into fishhood, and thereby provide for a future and continuous supply. At present we are eating all before us, and truly enough the fishermen make " all fish that comes into their net." Since the restrictive cattle laws have come into operation, fish has become more inquired for, meat being tabooed at many a poor man's table, and the consequence has been that every fish caught, large or small, has been kept to supply the extra demand. The subject is of more serious importance than the Legislatures have given it, and if some action is not speedily taken, the mischief will become almost altogether irreparable.

As we previously remarked, the list of game birds is by no means a lengthy one. We have several specimens of wild duclc, all of which are excellent eating ; we have,, or we may say had, splendid quail on the Taieri Plains, but these are gone ; there are swamp liens, Maori hens, kabas, pigeons—the finest, probably, in the world—and grey bitterns, All these are capital eating, and all afford good sport to the sportsman, but they are gradually becoming destroyed and in a short time will be traditional, or at best almost as rarely seen as the moa. We are by no means advocates for restricting shooting, at proper times and seasons, but we do emphatically protest against the continuance of the bird slaughter that has hitherto been allowed to go on unchecked. The spring is just now setting in, and the birds are pairing and about to breed ; notwithstanding this, a lot of unscrupulous people persist in shooting, and their feathered victims are hung out at every poulterer's door, where they find a ready sale. This is bird murder of the most atrocious description, and unless some steps are taken to prevent it, our stock of game will decline year by year till it is gradually extinguished. Exactly as the receiver is worse than the thief, so do the public connive at the iniquity by purchasing birds out of season. At the present time, not a single hen bird in ten is fit for the table, and yet they are sold and eaten, every one so disposed of representing from six to twelve birds next year. Lakes Waihola and Waipori, have been nearly cleared by one professional " sportsman," who had a punt in which was a gun ten feet long fixed on a swivel. With this instrument of destruction he has boasted of killing sixty birds at a single shot, the charge being something enormous, so large, indeed, that we are afraid to state. The residents in tht neighbourhood wrote to the superintendent on the subject, but the latter replied that he could not interfere, neither was there any act to hinder this sweeping destruction, or to reach the perpetrator. Surely this is a matter in which our dormant Acclimatisation Society might with propriety interfere. If they exerted themselves they could get an ordinance introduced and passed this session of the Provincial Council. We are aware that some doubt exists as to whether the Council have power to legislate on the subject; but even if the measure were disallowed, they would stand in 110 worse a position, and it .would not be the first time that the result of their deliberations had b°en rendered nugatory. It would,' at all events, have the effect of attracting attention to the subject, and those gentlemen who are both members of the Provincial Council and members of the General Assembly could, in the approaching session of the latter body, then introduce a bill of the kind, to embrace all J lie provinces of Another/objection to the working of an act of the kind lias been raised, viz., the impossibility of detecting the offender. In this respect there need be no difficulty, if the plan adopted in Victoria, both in the Game and Oyster Preservation Acts, be put in practice here. It is simply to hold the person in possession liable for all fines and forfeitures, and he thus vicariously suffers if he encourages offenders against the law. If this is carried out, the wronged game or fish, as the case may be, afford silent but incontestable evidence, and conviction follows as a matter of course. The operation of the Preservation Acts in Victoria has been strikingly beneficial; and game, which was at one time scarce and almost unattainable, is now plentiful and cheap. The creeks, which were almost depopulated, now swarm with ducks at the beginning of the season, and at its close there are always enough left to restock the country for the next year's shooting. Similar measures here would have equally beneficial effects; and we hope that the Acclimatization Society will take the question up warmly, and if they cannot at present introduce new species, let them at least do their utmost to save what we do possess from annihilation.