A Warning to Poachers.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 280, 30 March 1889, Page 3

A Warning to Poachers.

|to the editor.] Sib, —In reference to my appointment as Ranger by the Acclimatisation Society I would like you to give me space for a few remarks. For months past there has been a wholesale destruction of hares, and, I have every reason to believe, —young pheasants, going on round and about the Makaraka district. As is only too well know, this district is a regular breeding ground for game, but, when the shooting season commences, there is hardly a bird or a hare to be found. I would like to caution the persons who have been in the habit of firing shots day after day in the neighborhood of my residence, that the powers of a ranger are precisely similar to those of a constable, he being authorised to atop all persona whom he may suspect to be acting illegally, and ask their names, addresses, etc., and to call upon them to produce their shooting licensee, I, as an old sportsman, intend to exercise the powers given me, to the fullest extent, to prevent the unsportsmanlike procedure that has hitherto prevailed in the district over which my appointment extends. The people who do these illegal acts, fancy that unless some duly appointed person actually sees them with game, that no charge will lay against them. Let me tell them that “ trespassing in pursuit of game” is a quite sufficient offence against the law to cause a severe penalty, and it will ba my object to enforce that penalty against all persons whom I may find on Captain Tucker's, Mr Bousfield’s, or in my own paddock,—l am, etc., Pelham E. Richabdson. Banger, Acclimatisation Society. Makaraka, March 29th.