THE Grey River Argus. SATURDAY, AUGUST 1, 1868.

Grey River Argus, Volume VI, Issue 398, 1 August 1868, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. SATURDAY, AUGUST 1, 1868.

Perhaps it would be as well to inform our readers, especially our mining friends up-country, that to-day, being the Ist of August, commences the closed season under the "Game Laws" of New Zealand during which no "game " is allowed to be killed, under severe penalties, It is, not generally known that during the last session of Parliament an Act slipped through almost unobserved, because it bore on its face an apparently harmless title ; but which, on being examined, proves to be as, rigorous an enactment a.3 any of the old game laws passed in England, It ia intituled "An Act to provide for the protection of certain Animals, and for the encouragement of Acclimatisation Societies in New Zealand ; " and its. preamble sets forth that its object is "to provide for the protection of certain anU mals and birds " — a very desirable object certainly, within proper limits, but a most mischievous and obnoxious one when carried to an unnecessary extent, and hedged round with penalties of unusual severity. Now, on examination, this Act proves to be one of those pieces of legislation which lawyers delight in concocting in their offices, in utter ignorance of the conditions of life of some classes of colonial society. If the framer of this Act had known anything of the life of a prospector, he never would have drawn up a clause preventing the shooting of any native game, even down to a wood-pigeon, during eight months of the year— from the first day of Axigust to the first day of April in the succeding year. In order to make this as plain as possible, we will quote the Act. Clause 11 says : "No native game (that is, game included in schedule 5) shall be hunted, shot, or killed, in any part of the Colony, except during the months of April, May, June, and July in each year." We now turn to schedule 5, and find that it includes " wild ducks of any species, bittern, pied stilt plover, wild goese, wood-pigeon, real, black stilt plover, curlew, quail. " The penalty for infringement of tlu3 clause is not 10 exceed £20, or four months' imprisonment. Under no circumstances whatever is shooting game allowed on Sundays, under heavy penalties ; and in all cases the half of the inflicted penalty goes to the informer. Now, although very unpleasant, it is quite as well to know that this is the law, as well for the miners in the bush, as for the sporting gentlemen of Wellington ; but as no consideration whatever has been shown for the exigencies of a digger's life, it is satisfactory to know that in their case the law will defeat itself. To say that for eight months in the year a miner cannot use his gun to fill his pot, is simply absurd, and will not save the life of one of the Maori pets supposed to be protected by the stringent clauses of this Act. They will be shot all the same, wherever they are found, and there is more good faith among the miners generally than to turn informers. Still, such cases may occur occasionally, and it is as well for the miners to be acquainted with the state of the law on the subject. But it is a disgraceful tiling that in a young colony such as New Zealand, such an enactment should be found on its statute-book ; and it is to be hoped that during the present session of Parliament some of the more liberal members will take steps to mitigate the excessive severity of some of the clauses of this Act.