STRUGGLE FOR A GUN

Wanganui Chronicle, 6 May 1947, Page 6

STRUGGLE FOR A GUN

ACCUMATTISATION SOCIETY CASE FAILS. .(0.C.) Palmerston N., May 5. The story of a struggle for a shotgun between the Wellington Acclimatisation Society’s ranger (T. Andrews) and a Maori, who it was alleged was attempting to shoot ducks out of season, was related in the Magistrate’s Court, when two Maoris, Henry Hammond and Harry Pene, both labourers, of Opiki, were charged with pursuing wild duck out of season. Andrews told the magistrate that he had found spots where the grass was flattened out. He had taken up a watching position and had seen the two accused come from the direction of a Maori settlement with guns and dog. When he approached the men he had made to take a from Hammond, and the accused nad struggled. He had attempted to find a trigger to discharge the gun, but eventually had to give up the struggle. He then made toward the second accused, who made off. The next day he.identified the two men at a Maori settlement, and found out their names. When they were struggling, Hammond had told him to “go away, or I’ll blow your dash head off,” Andrews said. He told him not to be a fool. There did not appear to be enough light to shoot anything on the ground at any distance, but the sky was still light. “I realise that this is a very difficult matter from an Acclimatisation Society point of view,” said Mr. C. C. Marsack, S.M., and I think the ranger did everything possible under the circumstances, but I doubt if I can convict on the evidence presented. I must be satisfied that ducks were the object of the pursuit of the accused, who had pleaded not guilty. They claimed they had been after rabbits.”