The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-11-06 00:00:00

THE GAME QUESTION.

At a meeting of the Leicestershire Chamber of
Agriculture, held at the Bell Hotel, Leicester. on
Satmday, under the presidency of Mr. Albert Pell,
M.P., the subject of the over preservation of ground
game was introduced, and met with a prolonged and
lively discussion.
Lord Berners suggested that they should proceed to
the next subject, as nothing new could be advanced,
and the question ought to be made matter of agreement
betwet a landlord and tenant. He disputed a state-
ment that the preservation of game tended to promote
the increase of crime, and argued that the fact of there
being game upon certain lands had the effect of in-
creasing the value of the farm. In fact, he never
knew an instance of a valuer who in making an esti-
mate of the value of land, did not make the game a
consideration. In Mr. Humes time there was a great
cry against the game, which a few men got hold of,
and that was the same cry that was being stereotyped
at the present day. He therefore moved that in the
opinion of the Chamber the question of game was
more properly one of agreement between landlord and
tenant than for legislation. At the same time he ad-
mitted that great evil arose from the over preservation
of came.

The motion was seconded by Mr. Wright and sup-
ported by Sir Henry Halford, but after a long debate
was Met, and the following resolution carried by a
large majority :
That fu the opinion of this Chamber the cverpreservation
of ground game is fraught with much mischief, seriously
tends to diminish the profits of the occupier of the soil, tends
to Increase crime hi the rural districts, and diminishes the
food available for the supply of the population of this
country; and that the time has come when the Government
should be urged to take legislative action on the game laws
and that in any legislation thereon the ground game should
be struck out of the category.

The mover of this resolution—Mr. Foster—strongly
eondeinned the employment of the police as game-
keepers.

Lord Morley and Sir Massey Lopes, M.P., took part
in a discussion on the Gall. Laws at a meeting held
at Plymouth, on Friday, in connection with the Devon
and Cornwall Chamber of Agriculture. There was a
large attendance.
Mr. Snell, who introduced the subject, movel that "the
reservation of game and rabbits in leases and agreements for
farms is frequently abused, and Inflicts meat Inas and
oppression on the tenant, and therefore, for the good of
agriculture and the benefit of the community, it is desirable
that by legislative enactment the tenant should have equal
power with the landowner to kill hares and rabbits."

Lord Morley observed flat there were two points on
which the meeting seemed to he pretty well agreed—
namely, that in the present day the preservation of
game was carried to an undue extent, and that rabbits
were great pests to the farmers. Ile could not, how•
ever, endorse that part of the resolution which Ix°.
posed legislative enactment. Such a course would be
disagreeable to landlords, and would tend to check
those feelings of cordiality between the two classes
which it was absolutely necessary should exist. Ile
was strongly of opinion that there ought to be in every
lease some clause by which the tenant should be
secured against rabbits, or else compensation should
be granted to him. Any tenant who took a farm
without some consideration of the kind would
be unwise. He admitted another grievance, which was
that when a tenant had been serving for solve time
under a certain lease another owner came in the place
of the first and turned out a large head of game; in
such a case there ought to be a remedy. He was con-
vinced that landlords were becoming more and more
disposed to deal fairly with their tenants on this ques-
tion and to give theta ample compensation. lie would
rather far, in the interests of all classes, trust to private
arrangements between landlords and tenants than to
legislative enactment. He had been pleased to hear
the remarks which had been made with respect to
winged game, and he believed that without seeking the
aid of Parliament they might come to a satisfactory
conclusion as to the four footed game.
" ' '

Sir Massey Lopes admitted that an undue preserva-
tion of game, whether winged or four-footed, was an
unmitigated eviL The battue system whioli had
grown up in this country of late years was un.English-
manlike and unsportsmanlike. But he did not think
a moderate preservation of game was an evil. Land-
lords had great duties and responsibilities, and many
of them did not get much recreation. It would be
very hard if a moderate amount of sport with
the gun were denied such as himself, after a long
and laborious Session of Parliament. He quite agreed
that rabbits were a pest, and injurious both to
landlord and tenant, but the difficulty concerning
them might be met without taking from the landlords
the power of preserving a moderate amount of game.
There was a great deal in what hail been said as to the
right of the tenants to destroy rabbits on their estates,
but the question arose, how were they to destroy them?
He had given his truantry the power to net and ferret
throughout the year, but some who lived near the covers
said this had I ittle orno effect, because rabbits came from
the covers, and consequently in these exceptional
cases he had given power to trap during a certain period
before the breeding season. The dfflimity, he thought,
might be met in coins such way as this. Tenant
' farmers might depend upon it that the tendency of the
present day was for young men, landlords as well as
others, to rush into the towns, and the difficulty by-
and-by would be to keep the lin.llords in the country.
Every inducement should be hold out to them to re-
main, hut if a law were passed preventing landlords
from having reasonable sport the consequences would
be sure to he unsatisfactory. He strongly objecte Ito
the words "legislative enactmint " in the resolution,
and Mr. Snell was salted to withdraw them, but he re.
fused, and the resolution was ciuxied by a majority of
about forty.