LINE & TRIGGER.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XIII, Issue 792, 11 May 1905, Page 12

LINE & TRIGGER.

'the shooting season has opened under very favourable conditions, the weather having proved very fine, game has been more plentiful than has been the case for years. Especially has this been the case with the ducks, and sportsmen who havebeen after these have been having a great time. Some good bags have been made near Mercer. The largest bag secured here was by Messrs Donald Sutherland, Sons,, and Oldbury, who shot in all 311 grey duck and teal, every bird being shot in flight, and all single birds. This splendid bbg, in conjunction with all other bags got at Mercer this year, totals up to ’be number of over two thousand hudsfor the first three days of the season, which constitutes a record for Mercer. Messrs Findlay and Skellern shot 172 birds. Another good bag, consisting of fifty brace, was obtained by Mr S. McAnally, also of Mercer. Dr. Chatfield and party bagged one hundred and thirty birds in Waikare, and another party came away with ninety birds from Wairangi. Mr F. Kelly got over one hundred brace at Whaifgape, and another party of Auckland gunners got sixty birds at Waikare. Dr. Raynor and Mr Smith shot one hundred and thirty brace of young ducks on Lake Whangape, while other sportsmen made splendid bags on the same lake. At Waihou Lake Messrs Rae and party of three shot 140; Mr J. Simms, of Auckland, got twenty-six and a-half brace; Messrs Craig, Hyauiason, and Watron, about 35 brace (mostly teal); Mr J. Bregman, Glenmurray, one hundred and twelve ducks: and Messrs Keith, Cooper, Johnston, and Craig, one hundred and seventy brace, at Pokeno. These bags were obtained in the first two or three days of the month, but as the fusilade has been going briskly on ever since a great many more must have been secured.

Mr H. Feeney, a well-known shot, who has had a week in the Tauranga district reports that pheasants are far from plentiful. He drove from Tauranga almost to Rotorua and tried the district very thoroughly, but not more than -twenty birds fell to his gun. Ducks were seen in great numbers, but they were difficult to reach, while quail were also fairlv numerous.

In commenting on the fact that the Grand Prix at Monte Carlo has been again won by an Italian, which makes eleven times in the last twenty-two years that the Italians have been successful, while England has come out on top but four times within the same period, “Sportsman” arrives at the conclusion that the Britishers are greatly degenerating as pigeon shots, and are a long way behind the foreigner at this kind of sport. “Pigeon shooting in our days,” he says, is different to what it used to be. A bad habit, especially with the Italians and other foreigners, is the ‘ugly’ style of shooting which is now adopted, viz., to put the gun to the shoulder and keep it there, and not move it till the bird is on the wing. It is termed making the best use of the gun; whereas, some few years ago, the old system was far the best and most appreciated, and proved the better shot, when the gun had to be held below the elbow.

“Very few pigeon shots who adopt the system of keeping the gun to the shoulder are any good whatever in the field game shooting. A bird gets up unexpectedly; they are startled, they miss, and do not know where they do shoot. I have seen the biggest duffers in the field, game shooting, who have a reputation of beinggood live and clay bird trap shots. “A crack Yorkshire pigeon shot was lately invited with a party grouse driving, and fired twenty-seven cartridges one day and did not bag a bird. On another occasion, a gentleman who came with a great reputation from Monte Carlo also shot on the same moor, and fired between thirty and forty cartridges, with the same results, which caused no end of fun and amusement amongst the other guests, and he had a bit of chaff to -put up with. Putting- the gun to the shoulder and keeping it there entirely spoils one’s shooting for all-round sport.”

Commissioner G. M. Bowers, of the United States Bureau of Fisheries, in his report regarding the success attending a shipment of eggs to Argentina, where the artificial culture of fish has just begun, states that the eggs consisted of twenty thousand of the steelhead trout, one hundred thousand of the brook trout, fifty thousand of the lake trout, one million of the whitefish, and fifty thousand of the land-locked salmon. An employee of the bureau took charge of them in transit, the trip occupying forty-six days. The eggs were hatched with a loss of less than 10 per cent. '.I hey were transported a greater distance than any others had been in the history of fish culture.. r I hey crossed the line, and were carried three hundred miles in waggons over the hot sands of the territory of Neuquen,” to be hatched at the season of the year just opposite to that in which they would naturally have been hatched in their home waters. To New Zealand went one million whitefish eggs and three hundred thousand eggs of the Quinnat salmon. The whitefish eggs travelled 2600 miles byrail and 6600 miles by water. The salmon

eggs had a rail trip of only 250 miles. All of the eggs were transhipped eighteen times in waggons, railway cars, and ships before reaching their destination. When they were delivered at Auckland to the New Zealand inspector of fisheries there had been a loss of less than one-half of 1 per cent, among the salmon eggs and of about 10 per cent, in the whitefish eggs. The eggs were shipped from Auckland to Wellington in a steamer that had no cold storage facilities. The high temperature caused a further loss of 10 per cent, in the whitefish eggs and a fraction of 1 per cent, of the salmon eggs. The bulk of the consignment reached the streams and ponds of New Zealand in good order, find there is a prospect that the diet of the New Zealanders will be Americanised, in part, at least. England, Wales, France, and J apan received fish eggs of various kinds during the year.