CO885(2-3) — Page 483

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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C.O.885

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

3 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

COLONIES,

LAWS IN FORCE IN THE COLONIES AS TO TRESPASS,

EASTERS only favoured the depredations of poachers upon private and Crown lands, but I regret to have to add that the laws for the preservation of game were universally disregarded and that they were daily violated with impunity.

On the 22nd April, 1868, a petition, signed by the most influential owners of landed property in the Colony and by five of the inofficial members of the Council of Govern- ment, was submitted to the Governor. The petitioners observed that "the present Game Laws were notoriously insufficient to prevent the wanton destruction of game," and they solicited the revision of the laws for the preservation of game.

The present Ordinance has for its object to amend and to consolidate the various laws enacted for the preservation of game in the Colony, and to provide proper regulations for the enforcement of the law; and I shall now briefly pass in review the provisions enacted to that effect.

PART 1.

"Game Lirences,"

This part of the Ordinance maintains the dispositions of Ordinance No. 4, of 1836, which relate to Game Licences or Certificates, and to the duty payable for each licence.

The duty is £2 for all persons except servants, servants paying only £1.

This tax will appear moderate when compared with the duties payable for game certificates in England or in France.

Article 4 enumerates the persons to whom licences cannot be issued, and applies to the Game Law the dispositions of our common law respecting the disabilities of minors, of interdicted persons, and of parties who have not satisfied the judgments by which they have been condemned to a penalty for an offence to this Ordinance.

Articles 7, 8, and 9 contain special provisions, which had been for long time soli- cited from Government, and which experience had shown to be indispensable to secure private property against the depredations of poachers, and to protect the revenue against claring violations of the law, perpetrated with impunity.

PART II.

“Periods within which the Killing or Pursuit of Game is prohibited."

The periods fixed by Ordinance No. 17, of 1842, and within which it was made unlawful to kill game, have been slightly altered.

The sale of protected game, during the prohibited shooting period, continues to be forbidden.

Dealers in game have been subjected, as they are in England, to an annual licence for hawking or selling game; but instead of the duty of £2 payable under Section 19 of Act 1 & 2 William IV. c. 32, the duty under this Ordinance is only 10s. The Article 13, which requires that dealers in game should be licensed, further imposes upon such dealers the obligation of disclosing, when requested to do so, by police officers or forest rangers, the names of the persons from whom and the place where they have procured the game offered for sale by them. This provision may at first sight appear inquisitorial, but it has been necessitated by the numerous frauds committed by receivers of stolen game, whom the law permitted with impunity to sell or hawk game obtained from notorious poachers. Article 16 provides for the protection of the birds and animals which have not been specially mentioned in the Ordinance.

Several kinds of foreign birds and animals had, on various occasions, and for orna- mental or useful purposes, been introduced, at great expense, into this Colony; but as they were not protected by the law they had become the prey of the most wanton and barbarous destruction, and they had, soon after their introduction, disappeared from the Island.

Power is now given to the Governor to protect the birds and animals which exist in the Colony, or which may be introduced into it, by prohibiting absolutely their destruc- tion, or by restricting the period in each year within which they may be killed. Article 17 gives power to the Governor to extend the shooting season whenever he thinks it neces- sary, and to permit, at any time, the killing of game upon particular lands.

This power had temporarily been given to the Governor by Ordinance No. 22, of 1867, during the height of the fearful epidemic of fever which was then devastating the Colony: and the landed proprietors of the Colony had promptly availed themselves of the suspen- sion of the game laws to provide our dispensaries, hospitals, and houses of succour for the poor with an abundant and gratuitous supply of meat. This beneficial power, which in 1867, had the most happy effects, is now permanently invested in the Governor. Two other reasons were urged in Council in support of the provisions of this Article.

AND ALSO AS TO PRESERVATION OF GAME.

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Firstly. The Colonists had been flattered with the hope of a visit from one of the sons of Her Majesty, and the members of Council who represented the landed pro- prietors of the Island claimed the privilege, if at any time a Prince of the Blood visited Mauritius, to hail that visit by great stag-hunts even during the prohibited season.

Seidly-On various occasions, from want of pasturage or from the increase of stag herds upon particular estates, the stags had become so emaciated that various diseases had broken out among them; and it was justly represented that to prevent the breaking out of epidemic diseases in this most valuable species of Colonial game, power ought to be left to the Governor, to order, in any case of emergency, the diminution or destruc- tion of stags upon any particular estate.

These reasons having been unanimously approved by the Council of Government, the Article was passed without discussion.

PART III.

"Provisions to enforce this Ordinance.”

The dispositions of Article 18 are analogous to the provisions of the 21st section of Art. 1 & 2 William IV. chap. 32.

Art. 19 gives to police officers, to forest rangers, and to inspectors of licences the right, whenever they see a person carrying a gun or shooting, to enter the land where such person is found in order to inquire whether he has a game certificate.

This provision has been deemed by the Legislature to be indispensable for the proper execution of the Game Laws, as, under the previous law, poachers upon private property or uncertificated persons shooting upon their own land could with impunity violate the game regulations in the very sight of police officers, those officers having no legal right of entry upon the lands where the offences were committed. Art. 20, which provides penalties in cases of obstruction to the officers entrusted with the execution of the Ordi- nance and Articles 21 & 22, which provide for the mode in which dogs captured upon land not belonging to their master are to be dealt with, do not require any observations, as they merely reproduce the provisions of our Common Law.

Art. 23 gives to the owner or occupier of any land the right of shooting wild or unknown dogs roaming about their premises. These provisions were indispensable in our Island, where hydrophobia is so prevalent that it has on several occasions required special legislation.

Art. 24 affords another check to the violation of the Game Laws, by giving to the Governor the right, formerly exercised with too much leniency, or rather weakness, by district Magistrates, of refusing for a time the issue of game licences to offenders con- victed for a second time of any offence of the Game Laws.

PART IV.

"Legal Procedure."

The jurisdiction of the district Magistrate in matters connected with the Game Laws has been maintained. Art. 28 gives to owners or occupiers of private property, to police officers, to forest rangers, and to gamekeepers and inspectors of licences to prosecute before the district Courts offences committed against the provisions of this Ordinance.

In Art. 30, scale for the enforcement of fines by imprisonment is the same which the Colonial Legislature has recently adopted with a view to establish an uniform system with respect to the term of imprisonment applicable in case of the non-payment of a

fine.

PART V.

"Interpretation of terms · Repeal of Laurs,' · Promulgation of the Ordinance." This part of the Ordinance requires no observation; but before concluding this Report, I have, by a comparative statement of the number of game licences issued during the four years preceding the year 1869, and the number of licences taken within the first six months of the present year, to show the favourable results which this Ordinance has already obtained:

Game Certificates,

No. issued in 1865

1860

1867

1868

During the first months of 1869. from January 1st to June 26th

307

335

181

458

320

N

EASTERN

COLONIES.