Three Ohau Men Fined For Shooting Goats

Chronicle (Levin), 8 July 1948, Page 5

Three Ohau Men Fined For Shooting Goats

WAIROA, July 8. "Defendants, when interviewed, claimed that they believe'd the goats were wild and, like noxious weeds in their district, should be destroyed," said t Senior-Sergeant C. McRae, when prosecuting three men in the Magistrate's Court yesterday on eharges of having diseharged firearms on the main highway, Defendants were John David Francis Harris, Ashley Henry Rolston and Trevor Ambrose Rolston, all of Ohau, Levin. Senior-Sergeant McRae stated that when the party was travelling through Mohaka, a Maori settlerrient, they saw a number of goats close to the highway and opened fire, killing two for which the owner would probably have a civil claim. Continuing, Senior Sergeant McRae stated that the. goats were quite tame, and as a result of the fright they had received ifrom the shooting the owner would most iikeiy meet with diffieulty in getting them to return near the roadway to destroy blackberry growing along the fence lines. Possibly, as strangers to the district, defendants had not realised the value of goats to farmers for eating blackberry, and it would be as well to issue a warning. The magistrate, Mr. L. G. H. Sinclair, in fining each defendant, all having pleaded guilty, £2 10s with 10s costs, said he could not understand why the men charged believed the animals were wild.