SANCTUARY AREAS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 32, 30 September 1931, Page 4

SANCTUARY AREAS

ROD AND. GUN CLUB SUGGESTS REVISION OF DISTRICT BOUNDARIES ANOMALIES CREATED Application has been made to the Internal Affairs Department, Wellington, by the Rotorua Rod and Gun Club, for the elimination of all existing- sanctuary areas. in the Rotorua district and the setting up of new boundaries. At the present time, a very large proportion of the Rotorua Acclimatisation district . is. composed of sanctuaries and "excepted" areas, or private properties which are also protected under the Act. The many different sanctuary boundaries have become a source- of confusion, and very few sportsmen and ofScials are to-day able to say with any degree of .certainty where one sanctuary begins and another ends. . Possibly as a result of the club's representations, a; number of sanctuary .boundaries -have already been altered as set out in the latest Gazette, but no aetion has so far been taken to re-adjust the whole of the area. > . , . • • . These large and.scattered areas of sanctuary, including as. they do, the extensive affpr.estation districts, have ereated icertain anomalies through the overlapping of territories and regulations. In one case, as :already mentioned ,the borough of Rotorua was ereated: a sanctuary, thus makjng; it illegal under the Animals Protectiqn Act, to have either a dog or gun inside the town area. This farcicial situation has been removed by the.-changes constituted under the regulations just gazetted but. a similiar. situation. stilL persists in the Okareka 'reserve where according to the. regulations fishermen should first obtain a permit from ,the Minister of Internal Affairs before going to Lake Okareka which is.part of the Okareka Scenic .Reserve, and theref ore .. not open tp any member of the public without a permit.