ACCLIMATISATION SOCIETIES AND GAME LAWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9493, 24 April 1894, Page 3

ACCLIMATISATION SOCIETIES AND GAME LAWS.

TO THE EDITOK. Sib, —At the last meeting of the Auckland Acclimatisation Society (present five members) the not unusual lament of that body over the small penalties Inflicted by country justices for the infraction of the game laws was indulged in. It was mentioned that in one case a penalty of one shilling only was inflicted. One indignant member thought a minimum penalty of £2 should be fixed by law. What is the inference to be drawn from the reluctance of justices to inflict heavy penalties for a mere statutory offence? I think it is obvious, and the society would do well to lay it to heart. The reason is that those on whose land the game (mainly pheasants) is reared and fed are out of sympathy with those who have no interest in common with them, and who only desire that game may be reared and preserved in order that they may enjoy the pleasure oi shooting it without expense to themselves, and so would selfishly debar the farmers from liberty to protect their crops for nine months of the year from the depredations of pheasants, which, from long residence in the country, and as a cultivator, I know to be by no means trifling. Does it never occur to the gentlemen who so angrily complain of the decisions of country justices, that these latter may, from their intimate knowledge of country affairs, and of the circumstances attending each case brought before them, be much better judges of the merits of the case than residents in the city ? From time immemorial the game laws have been the source of heartburnings and injustice in the old countries of the world, and I doubt she wisdom of introducing them into newly-settled ones. The Acclimatisation Society, chiefly composed of townsmen, is mainly kept gome by the game cense fees, which are compulsorily and gratuitously collected for it by country postmasters, whilst the breaches of the law are watched for it by the police 01 the colony, bribed to vigilance by rewards for convictions obtained. Yet the Society is a self-constituted and irresponsible body.— I am, etc., Old Settles.