ILLEGAL TRAPPING

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 708, 6 July 1929, Page 1

ILLEGAL TRAPPING

’POSSUM HUNTERS FINED FOUND ALONG POISON LINE Press Association WELLINGTON, Today. Reserved decision was given by Mr. E. Page, S.M., in the case of Jack Horgan, George Linton and lan Mackay, three men charged with unlawfully having possession of opossum skins, with using poison for taking or killing opossums and taking or killing opossums during the close season. He said that, where men were found deep in the bush travelling along a line on which poison had been laid, gathering the fruits of illicit poisoning, and having in their possession a tin containing the material used in poisoning, he thought the proper inference to be drawn was that they were parties to the unlawful poisoning. Tile explanation given by them was not adequate to displace this inference. All facts pointed to a strong probability that, even if Mackay himself did not handle them, he was a party to and abetted in the taking of the skins. There was, hove- just an element of doubt as to the .t played by Mackay in these illicit operations, and he must be given the benefit of that doubt. The charges against Mackay were therefore dismissed. Linton and Horgan were each fined £2O and costs, with counsel’s fee £5 ss, on the first charge, and ordered to pay costs on the other charges.