"SHOOTING TO SAVE"

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 105, 3 January 1940, Page 3

"SHOOTING TO SAVE"

ACCLIMATISATION SOCIETY'S ARGUMENT Leading members of the Forest and Bird Protection Society arc strongly opposed to the argument of Dr G. F. Anson, Chairman of the Wellington Acclimatisation Society, that it is better for the ducks to have a short or fortnight's season than a closed season. "Surely that is the queerest kind of claim ever made lor the protection of game birds," states one of the critics. "According to Dr Anson it is a case of shooting to save. The doctor's pronouncement is so emphatic that he almost leaves a reader to assume that he has consulted the ducks and has been assured by them that thev would preier the thrills of the shooting to the peace and quietness of a closed season. "Because the Hon. W. lv. Parrv, Minister of Internal Affairs, has had the courage to.take necessary action to help the birds to increase he is denounced as a 'Hitler' and he is threatened, with the wrath of Ac- j climatisation Societies. In Dr Anson's words, 'it is time he was told where he gets off.' "Well, it is the earnest hope of many thousands of New Zcalanders that the Minister will decline firmly to get off the right course which he has wisely chosen and that he will continue to get on with his duty of administering the Animals Protection and Game Act on behalf of the general public and not sections of it. He has explained clearly that he wishes to assure supplies of game birds for the future, but efforts are being made persistently to swerve him from hi? purpose. The action which he is taking now is one that preceding heads of his department should have taken long ago."