DUCK OUT OF SEASON

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19315, 4 May 1937, Page 4

DUCK OUT OF SEASON

TWO MAORIS FINED £5 HALF FOR INFORMANT WAIOEKA RIVER OFFENCE For shooting blue mountain cluck out of season in the Waioeka River, .loe Tipu and Herbert Tipu, Matawai, were each lined £5 and costs £1 6s by Mr. K. L. Walton, S.M., in the Police Court in Gisborne to-day, half of .the fines to go to the informant, Constable McvJlinchy. Senior-Sergeant J. P. 11. Macnamara staled that the prosecution, was taken under section 9, snb-section 3, of the Animals Protection and Game Act, 1921-22. The senior-sergeant added that Herbert Tipu, the younger man, had a .22 calibre rifle. When they-saw four blue mountain duck swimming in the river. Herbert Tipu got off his cycle and shot at the ducks, wounding one. The elder also had a shot. Thev were unable to recover the wounded duck. Constable McClinchy, in evidence, said that the defendants admitted the offence. Mr. J. G. Nolan, appearing for the East Coast Acclimatisation Society, suggested that half the penalty imposed should he paid to the party responsible for bringing the proceedings. All acclimatisation societies had difficulty in bringing offenders to the court, and wished that informants should be rewarded. The constable concerned was instrumental in bringing 'the proceedings. The senior-sergeant said he intended to make a similar suggestion. Each defendant was fined .£5 and costs, £1 6s, and an order was made that half tho fine should be paid to the informant.