CONTROL OF WILD LIFE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 147, 27 August 1941, Page 2

CONTROL OF WILD LIFE

FISHING AND SHOOTING

PRESENT SYSTEM CRITICISED

In a revieAV of control of wild life Mr G. Stokell, president of the Canterbury Branch of the Royal Society of New Zealand, indicates kinks in control by acclimatisation societies.

"When we come to examine the constitution and proceedings of acclimatisation societies," he states, "we find that these bodies are composed of the purchasers of licenses to kill either lish or game, that these composite groups of killers elect councils to receive the killing fees and manage affairs generally and that these councils appoint from their own personnel a centra 1 , association to provide contact with the Government and deal with matters of more than common delicacy.

"One wonders, in passing, why the controlling bodies should be of a -composite character, instead of the control of fish and that of game being separately administered. Apart from the gratification of the killing instinct, the act of killing fish lias little in common with the iict of killing game, and an author' ity in either department of sport is not necessarily an authority in t'he other. "But the most surprising circumstance is that the killers should have control of the animals they kill, that the sole qualification for safeguarding the welfare of wild creatures should be the possession of n desire to kill them asi manifested bjr the purchase of a killing permit. One seeks in vain for a parallel m any other social sphere.

"If this principle is a sound one the control of the mineral resources of this country ought to be in the hands of the mining interests that exploit them ; the conservation of forests should be left to the sawmillers; and it would require? little extension of it to justify the control. of wealth being placcd in the hands of the indolent ami improvident. Such arrangements would ap-

proximate the present system of control of sporting animals, where the care of the prey is committed t'> the tender mercies of the predators. "Whatever protective influence the license fee may exercise in its direct application i.v far outweighed by the destructive effect of its reactions. Open seasons for the taking of game are granted by the Government on the recommendation of acclimatisation societies, without, reference to any disinterested authority or scientific body."