SHOOTING A PHEASANT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 251, 21 September 1929, Page 8

SHOOTING A PHEASANT.

YOUNG MAN FINED. (By Telegraph—Special ‘to Standard.) AUCKLAND, Sept. 20. Unfortunately for the young man, he shot a pheasant practically under the window of Judge Ostler’s home in Remuera,” said Mr West, who prosecuted J. Gould, on behalf of the Auckland Acclimatisation Society, at tho Police Court for shooting in a close season. His Honour, of course, is a well known sportsman in sympathy with the objects of the society. Defendant, who was represented, by Mr Kealy pleaded guilty to the charge. Mr West 6aid that the offence committed was a serious one for it took place in the city at Remuera. “One can hardly imagine this young man setting out deliberately to shoot a hen pheasant in a place where these birds are a delight to many people,” said Mr West. “Sportsmen feel keenly about the matter. Even if pheasants were destroying gardens, defendant could have applied to the Acclimatisation Society, who would, if the case demanded it, have destroyed the bird. In this case I must ask for the maximum penalty of £10.” Mr Kealy said that the case was not so black as Mr West had made out. Pheasants had been a source of annoyance in the garden of defendant’s parents. Eariy one morning, said counsel, someone passed the remark: “There goes the pheasant that is destroying the garden.” On the spur of the moment Gould got a gun and shot the bird. Tlie offence was not in any way premeditated, and there was no concealment. Mr Kealy. thought that a light fine would meet tho case.

. Mr F. K. Hunt, S.M., imposed a fine of £5 with costs £2 12s.