Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878] TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1893.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4338, 7 February 1893, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878]

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1893.

Bkinq the extended title or the Wairaham Daily, with whioh it is IDENTICAL

It is said that trout are sold in Masterton sub rosa, and the market price has been quoted at four pence per! pound, There are two aspects from which this irregular sale can be looked at. One is the standpoint from which , sportsmen are likely to regard it, the other is the ground from which the publio will he apt to consider it, The sportsmen will pronounce siiok sale as improper, illegal and monstrous, a thing to be punished with the utmost vigour of the law—Liberal Justices being kept offthe Bench, The publio will take another view and Bay that there 1 is a practically unlimited food supply in our trout streams, that twenty or thirty families get more fish than they can consume, and that three or four hundred get none at all, Tho maa with a little leisure and a little money • is surfeited with trout, but tho working man with little time for sport and less money for indulging in it has to go without. To this the sportsman will probably reply, " Fish for yourself Mr Workingman, the streams are open to you on the same terms that they are to me," But the working ; man will contend that he cannot spare I a pound for a license, and another pound for a rod, and that after his day's work he does not feel like a trip up the river after fish. He can afford to pay an occasional sixpence for an occasional trout, and he must either get his fish this way, poach for it or go without, Every year this difficulty is likely to become greater unless the Acclimatisation Society faco it and meet itinareasoonble manner, If this food supply camjot be secured in a regular way, it will probably be more or leas obtained after an irregular | fashion, Illegal practipes have pre- , vailed for several yeai'B witbouta con- i viction being obtained against any i offender and apparently they are on ' the increase, We should be very sorry to defend or exou.se Buoh prao- ! tices but wo do think that the timo ' has arrived when tho Society might J license the sate of trout within reason- j ablo limits. Such licenses have, we | believe, been granted in other parts i of the Colony, and might be conceded I here without any prejudice to angling ' or anglers. We understand that some ' streams in this district arc overstocked j and that it would be to the advantage ( of legitimate sport if their numbers [ were reduced. The problem for the i Acclimatisation Society is to reconcile « tj]e interests of the people who desire * to avail themselves of an ample food supply at their own doom, with the i interests tf '"filers who. have a right to protection in the exercise of their Pastime, Probably the issue pf a v riisu'ipftu Jicense for tie sale of fisli would solvo |t. " s