SHOOTING BEGINS THIS MORNING

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 187, 4 May 1940, Page 10

SHOOTING BEGINS THIS MORNING

Many Gunners Go Out

OPENING BARRAGE OF GAME SEASON

The peace of New Zealand's quiet countryside will have been shattered at an early hour this morning, when in the first murk of dawn sportsmen open their annual offensive against wild duck and swan. For this morning the shooting season opens. Yesterday evening ears packed with guns and gunners, with folding canoes on tiie roofs, or dinghies on trailers in tow, and happy Labradors and cockers, pointers and retrievers lolling their red tongues out the windows, set forth from Wellington city for the Wairarapa Lake ’ and other favourite swamps, lagoons and meres. There will lie practically no stretch of water in tiie Wellington province where the wildfowl feed, other than the gazetted sanctuaries, beside which there will not be sportsmen shivering in ambush before the setting of the stars. It is rarely' that the first barrage of the season is not fired in half-dark-ness, when the first faint glimmer in the sky gives sufficient light to discern the dark shapes of the wild duck winging down to the pools where they are wont to feed.

Sportsmen who have iu tiie past maintained that on opening day the wily wild duck, anticipating the annual slaughter of the first of May, are already safe in sanctuary, are interested to see whether the holding of the opening on May 4 instead of May 1 will trick the birds into a false sense of security. They believe that the ducks' suspicions may have been lulled by the respite on the first three days of the traditional shooting month. This year it is expected that a larger number of gunners than ever will take part iu the opening morning’s shoot, the curtailed season inducing most licenceholders to go out so as to make the most of their opportunities. The waterfowl season this year lasts only a fortnight, after which the birds will again receive the full protection of the law. Sportsmen, unlike the rest of the community, are depressed by the present spell of fine weather. It is considered unsuitable for the enjoyment of the man in the mai-mui; it may add to his comfort, but it means the duck will bo flying high and will have better opportunity of discerning the presence of anti-aircraft ambuscades from afar.