SHOOTING TAME PIGEONS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXV, Issue 2863, 18 November 1890, Page 2

SHOOTING TAME PIGEONS.

TO THE EDITOH. Sib, —Whenever I see a pi?eou match advertised I feel a pang at nob having done all in my power to try to get the practice discontinued. I have often spoken on the subject to one and another privately but never so far publicly. I should like to do something but hardly know what is the best Way to go about it. I have decided to write to you in the hope of enlisting your sympathy and that of your many readers. I chooso the present time for two reasons. Tho first reason is that attention was drawn to the matter the othor day in Auckland at the annual meeting of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Theseoond reason is that there are no matches being arranged in this district at the present time, as far as I can loarn, and this fact, to my mind, makes the time opportune. When I liavo read of a match in prospect 1 have felt it best to refrain ftorn wiiting, us somo persons, at leant, would have boon already committed to carrying it through, and these persons, moreovor, may not have realised that they were doing anything cruel in taking part in this work. Things present themselves differently at different times. Pigeon matches havo been regarded by tmny good men in the past as perfectly legitimate sport, and I do not wish to say a harsh word of anyone who has taken pare in them, or either to call the practice itself by any hard names, But we ought to be always trying to advance, and look from higher grounds, and do better every day both as individuals and as communities. I would now ask our sporting friends in all kindness and Qharity to give their support, one and all, to the excellent Society I have referred to abovo in discouraging this practice in future, and try to find some satisfactory substitute for it.—l am, Sir, yours faithfully, Wμ. N. dk L. Willis. S. Andrew's, Cambridge. Nov. nth, 1S!)O.