BREACH OF LAW.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20277, 11 April 1934, Page 8

BREACH OF LAW.

Native Game Kept in F reezer. HOTELKEEPERS PROSECUTED. Hotelkeepers who wish to provide their guests with native game during the close season now have no means of so doing. Appearing this morning for the North Canterbury Acclimatisation Society in prosecuting for breaches of the Game regulations, Mr M. J. Gresson drew attention to a regulation that states: — “ Any person authorised to take or kill or to sell imported game or native game or both may place in any freezing or cool chamber any such game so taken or killed, which may be kept in such chamber until required by the person depositing the same, but net beyond seven days after the close of the open season.” Another regulation provided for the keeping of a register of all game kept in any freezer. Under these regulations, Ernest Boultcn (Mr Brown), Henry J. Crust (Mr W. A. White) and Alfred M. Green were each convicted and ordered to pay costs on charges of possessing game without authority at the premises of P. Feron and Son. E. J. Newman (Mr Holmes), manager of Feron’s freezing chambers, was convicted and discharged for failing to keep a register of game in the cool chamber. First Prosecutions. Mr Gresson said that the prosecution was brought under a regulation dated 1930, but which had been in existence for many years pricr to that. It was aimed at preventing the destruction of game out of season by removing channels through which it could be disposed of. Game could not be kept in the freezer for a period of longer than seven days after the close of the open season. He had no doubt that both hotelkeepers acted in ignorance of the by-law. It was the first prosecution under the regulation that he knew of. Mr Brown and Mr White pleaded guilty on behalf of their clients. They said that Mr Boulton was the proprietor of the United Service Hotel and Mr Crust was the proprietor of the New City Hotel. They were in entire ignorance of the regulation and had been carrying on the practice for years without notification that it was a breach. If it was so decided it was a serious matter for these hotel proprietors. They catered mainly for overseas visitors, who regarded native game as a delicacy, and often asked for it. To provide for this demand the hotelkeepers were accustomed to keep a stock of game in the cool chamber during the close season. Green, in pleading guilty, said that though he was a fishmonger, the game he had was solely for his own use. He had only six black swans in the first place and had taken out four of them. The fourth was 44 a bit high for his taste,” and he had left the other two in the freezer to avoid freezing charges. He had forgotten them. As a Warning. Mr Holmes said that Newman had not been aware that the society was pressing the regulation. A year previously there had been game in his freezer when an official inspection had been made and no notice had been given to him at that time. “ Well, this is the first occasion in ten years that such a case has been before me," said Mr H. P. Lawry, S.M. 44 This will act as a warning.”