POACHING RAMPANT.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 December 1921, Page 11

POACHING RAMPANT.

LOSS OF FISH AND GAME. PROTECTIVE LAWS IGNORED. For some time past poaching has been rampant in the Wellington district, and the local Acclimatisation Society apparently has been able to do little to stop it. One of the rangers recenly wrote a memorandum to the society on the subject, and suggested that the society would have to develop a different policy if it wished to conserve fish and game. Mr. L. F. Ayson, chief inspector of fisheries, in an interview, confirms the statements made by the ranger. He says game birds, both native and imported, are being shot without a license, and out of season. Native pigeons and other birds wholly protected are shot indiscriminately, while trout and salmon are killed wholesale by explosives and other means. There is also wholesale destruction in the spawning beds in the breeding season. A great many of the ordinarily respectable residents of the town and country seem to think nothing of poaching fish and game, and respect for the game laws and the true sporting spirit are waiting on every side.

“Whether a spirit of lawlessness that is pervading this as well as all other countries at the present time has anything to do with it, or whether it is that acclimatisation societies, through lack of funds or other reasons, cannot keep poaching in check, I am unable to say,” h e continued. “However, there is no doubt that poaching in its very worst form is on the increase every year, and I feel that unless effective measuTs are taken to keep it in check there is h great risk that it will get out of hand, and that the law will be openly defied. “How to cheek this evil, which tends to undo the work of the societies and spoil the sport for legitimate sportsmen, is a matter for serious thought by all acclimatisation bodies, and in getting the public to realise the necessity of observing any necessary protective, regulations they would, I think, have the sympathy of the Government. It is easy to make laws for the protection of fish and game, but beyond the mere placing of a law on the -Statute Book there is the necessity of making that law effective. When the need for a law is realised by the general public, it will always be found that there will be little necessity of enforcing it.” Mr. Ayson advocates a campaign by the societies with a view to instilling in the public mind the qualities of true sportsmanship. Children ought, he says, to be taught a love of animals, birds, and fish, and a love for clean usport. The conservation of fish and game will only be effected when the public is interested in its preservation, and by the sporting spirit shown by those who fish and shoot. Unemployed on public works are blamed for killing fish by the use of explosives in the streams