THE SHOOTING SEASON.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVII, Issue 11226, 25 March 1897, Page 4

THE SHOOTING SEASON.

We are not surprised to learn that a large number of sportsmen in all parts of the colony are displeased by the proposal to postpone the opening of the shooting season until the middle of next month. The object of the authorities is no doubt to preserve the game until the Easter holidays, when people from the towns would have an opportunity to join with their country cousins in the initiation of the annual slaughter; but they seem to have lost sight of some of the objections that have been, urged against the change. In the first place it would be rather tantalising to the farmers on the borders of the shooting grounds to see their crops of peas disappearing before flights of ducks that were being preserved beyond tbe customary period for the benefit of city sportsmen. If tbe temptation to open the season at the usual date were too much for some of the sufferers the power that had overtaxed their patience would not be acquitted of all blame. Then it is not at all certain that the townspeople would derive any appreciable advantage from the delay. Many of them are compelled to confine their shooting to localities that are actually benefited, from. a sportsman’s point of view, by tbe battues that drive the birds from their breeding places. But, perhaps, the most important point of all is that the delay in opening the season would make it more difficult than ever to hasten its conclusion. . There is a very general consensus of opinion that a fortnight cut off the other end, when many of the birds are mating and preparing to lay, would do more than anything else to preserve our native game. We hope, in view of all these considerations, to learn that the authorities have deferred to the recommendation of the local Acclimatisation Society and decided to adhere to the practice of former years.