POSSUM POISONING

Hokitika Guardian, 8 July 1929, Page 2

POSSUM POISONING

OUT OF SEASON. £2O FINES IMPOSED. (By Telegraph—Per Press Assoeiation.) WELLINGTON, July 6.

His reserved decision was given by Mr Page, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court, in a case in which Jack Ilorgan, George Linton, and lan Mackay, were charged with being unlawfully in possession of opossum skins, and w'fch using poison for the purpose of taking or killing opossums and also with taking or killing opossums during the close season. The magistrate said: “Where men are thus found, deep in the bush, travelling along a line on which poison has been laid, and gathering the fruits of illicit poisoning, and have in their possession a tin containing material used in poisoning, I think that the proper inference to be drawn is that they were parties in unlawful poisoning, and elm explanation now given by them is not adequate to displace this inference.” Dealing with the case of McKay, he said that all the facts pointed to the strong probability that, even if McKay himself did not handle them, he was a party to, and abetted, the taking of skins. He (the Magistrate) had, however, just an element of doubt as to the part played by McKay in these illicit operations, and he must be given the benefit of the doubt. The charges against McKay would therefore be dismissed. Linton and Morgan were each fined £2O and costs, with counsel’s fees £5 5s on the first charge, and were ordered to pay costs on the other charges.