A 'BUSH LAWYER'

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 212, 13 September 1940, Page 4

A 'BUSH LAWYER'

MAORI DEFENDS HIMSELF FINES IMPOSED FOR GAMING OFFENCES Mr A. Kean,. Conservator of Fish and Game, Rotorua, prosecuted when Mahu Wiremu appeared before Mr E. L. Walton, S.M., at Wha katane, charged with failure to produce a licence for game and with being in possession of native pigeon feathers, the native pigeon being a protected bird. Mr Kean said that on the date to which the charges related, defendant was observed by Ranger V. C. Barton in a maize, patch on a property known as Sox's, this jjroperty being in the Rotorua Acclimatisation District. Defendant had a gun in his hand and a bag on his back. Investigation* revealed the feathers in the bag and Wiremu had admitted that he would 'shoot anything at all.' Evidence was given by Ranger Barton, who said defendant had told him that he had shot pigeons. Witness recognised the bag produced' as that which defendant carried. Asked if he had anything to say, Wiremu requested the services of an interpreter, suggesting that his English was not of the best. "I have no interpreter, judge," he said. "You are talking good English now," observed the magistrate.. Wiremu said he had picked the bag up from the road and! did not know that it contained the native pigeon feathers. His idea, he said, was that if hel washed the bag (a sugar bag) he could take it in to Whaka* tane and sell it for 3d. He submitted further that he was entitled to shoot on the property ' on which he was 'found and as that particular area was closed for the season to all but those in it, a licence was not necessary. "I have never, never, shoot the pigeons in my life,' he concluded. "You are what is known as a 'bush lawyer'," said the magistrate, and fined Wiremu £2 and costs on the first charge and £3 and costs on the second.