AN EXPENSIVE OUTING.

Putaruru Press, Volume VIII, Issue 323, 23 January 1930, Page 5

AN EXPENSIVE OUTING.

ILLEGAL FISHING. C. Rasmussen was charged at the Putaruru Court on Thursday, before Mr. S. L. Paterson, S.M., at the instigation of the Auckland Acclimatisation Society, with fishing without a license, failing to give his name when asked to, and fishing in a prohibited stream. Mr. F. W. Hutchison appeared for the defendant and entered a plea of not guilty. Mr. W. T. Routledge prosecuted on behalf of the society. George Kingscott, a farmer, of Puketurua, and an honorary ranger, stated that on the date in question he saw the defendant near the Little Waipa river, having a rod and line. A friend of the defendant knew the stream to be a prohibited one. Rasmussen said he was not fishing but merely looking around. He gave his name as Smith. Witness took the number of the car, thus ascertaining that the defendant was the man spoken to. In answer to Mr. Hutchison, witness said he did not see the defendant fishing. He saw the rod, which was flung into the stream. Mr. Hutchison said the defendant had fished in another stream without a license but not in the stream named in the charge. The defendant’s guilty conscience caused him to throw the rod away. Another foolish thing the defendant did was to give a wrong name.

The defendant was convicted and fined £5 and costs on the charge of fishing without a license, while he was convicted and ordered to pay 10s costs on the charge of fishing in a prohibited area and giving a wrong name. The charge of taking trout in a prohibited area was dismissed.