Powers And Duties Of Honorary Rangers Outlined At Taneatua

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 32, 31 August 1949, Page 5

Powers And Duties Of Honorary Rangers Outlined At Taneatua

Last Wednesday Mr K. E. Francis, Government ranger, attended a meeting of the honorary rangers recently appointed in the Taneatua area and gave a lecture on the powers and duties of rangers. About nine rangers were present. The first part of his address covered the suppression of poaching, vermin control and the collection of angling data. The latter half covered the legal side and an explanation of the Acts under which rangers were empowered. * He stressed the fact that rangers frequently had a particularly* unpopular job but pointed out that most sportsmen now realised that if fishing and shooting were to continue, they must side with the law against the poacher, in their own interests.' The districts controlled by individual rangers v/ere so vast that efficient control could not be effected without the co-operation of sportsmen. The 'rigid Government rationing of benzine, although very necessary, restricted the steady inspection of outlying areas. He warned them, that they should not be disappointed if the Department did not always adopt all their recommendations. It was comparatively easy for a body of men to undertake to advise the Government on almost any matters bt whether the recommendations would be automatically adopted was another matter. The Department in their wisdom always retained Ihe right to decide on matters of policy. This applied to their own officers’ recommendations too.