SHOOTING RIGHTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 May 1939, Page 4

SHOOTING RIGHTS

CRITICISM OF SALE BY LANDOWNERS. VIEWS OF ACCLIMATISATION SOCIETY MEMBERS. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. An allegation that farmers were selling their shooting rights, and that in one case a farmer had sold the. right to shoot on a lagoon to certain prominent members of Parliament, was made by speakers at the annual meeting of the Wellington Acclimatisation Society last night. The question was raised by Mr F. A. Reeves, who asked whether anything could be done about it. Mi’ E. Ranish said it was well known that the shooting rights of lagoons were being bought.' It would only be a matter of time when a sportsman going to the Wairarapa would have to pay £5 to a farmer for shooting rights. Another member: “I suggest we should' do something whereby a landowner cannot sell his game before it is shot. He cannot sell it afterward, so he should not be able to sell it before.” The chairman of the finance committee, Mr D. J. Gibbs, said the question involved the rights of private individuals. The society would not give game to a private individual, who would not let people shoot on his property. It had sold game to these individuals but could not interfere with their rights as private citizens. A voice: ‘‘l think the society should see that no birds are sold to those people.” Mr Gibbs: “We are not selling any this year.” The voice: ‘‘No, because you have none.” A further speaker quoted a case of a man selling the right to shoot on a lagoon to certain members of Parliament. A voice: ‘‘lt was not very sporting.”