The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-10-19 00:00:00

THE GAME LAWS.

Mr. Newton, in reply to a correspondent, who had criticized
a letter written by Mr. Newton to the Daily Need on the
subject of the Game Laws, thus replies

Allow me, in a few words, to reply to the remarks
contained in a letter, signed "S. F.," in your impres-
sion of this day. The value of the right of shooting
over any land is no measure of the damage that has been
inflicted by the game up to the time when the shooting
commences. "The worth of a thing is what it will bring,"
and I do not dispute the fact that after all the damage
that wild animals and birds may have done to a fanner's
crops, the value of the said animals and birds, plus the
sport, is sometimes only 9d. an acre; but I do say that
this trifling payment inns measure of the loss a farmer
suffers. I doubt if there are many farmers who would
willingly allow game to breed and feel upon their land
for five times this PIM ; but whilst the law compels
them to allow partridges to live upon their crops un-
disturbed until September, it is no wonder that they
should try to make something, however trifling a return
it may be, out of the partridges. The best authorities
say that four hares will destroy and consume as much
value as a sheep; and I find it stated in " Bohn's
Cyclopirdia," an impartial authority, that "the des-
truction by hares alone is often equal to an additional
rental of 10s. per acre on the whole of the farm, and
there is, besides, the waste and destruction caused by
rabbits, hares, and partridges." A Mr. Cooper gave
evidence before a Parliasaentary Committee that he
had thirty acres of wheat clestroyed by partridges;
and pheasants are even more destructive—from Feb-
ruary to October they are occupied in pecking up the
seed corn, and walking over the young shoots, and
spoiling and reducing the crop at harvest time, and
whilst the bird is living on the farmer's produce nobody
is allowed to touch it ! Mr, C. Read, the only tenant-
r, I believe, in the House of Commons, has
stated that in one district of the county of Norfolk
18,000 acrec of land are untenanted on account of game;
that if hares and rabbits were kept within reasonable
bounds 40,000 more sheep could be kept in the county;
and that 'ground game destroys food, prevents the
employment of labour and capital, and ruins the
farmer."

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Even where a farmer has permission from his land-
lord to destroy the game, he is unable entirely to get
rid of them under the present Game Laws, partly
because the game from his neighbours' preserves
cannot be kept off his land, and also because the
law does not allow him materially to reduce their
number until the expiration of the close time. All the
summer he must watch the game damaging his crops, and
is not allowed to shoot them. If hares and rabbits are
cheap, it is not because the cost of production is small,
but because they simply fetch their commercial value
as food. As regard the people now engaged in the
manufacture of guns and ammunition, it will be no
misfortune if any considerable number of them are
liberated for more u.seful occupations • and, on the
other hand, the increased quantity of land brought
ander cultivation by the abolition of the Game Laws,
and the additional amount of capital and labour re-
quired for the improved cultivation of land already
under crops, will form a welcome addition to the agri-
culture of the country. In a thickly-populated
cuuntry like ours, the land is wanted for feeding the
people, and it cannot he allowed to be diminished in
. . . . •

;:ahie for the amusement of the rich. It is a litvral
fact that millions of acres of land in England and
fiLothind are kept out of cultivation selely on ac-
count of the preservation of game. Nor are
game laws to be condemned only upon economical
considerations ; the moral grounds for demanding their
total r. peal are not to be disregarded. The average
number of convictions for offences against these laws
is about 10.000 yearly. Thousands of our rural popu-
lation have first made the acquaintance of the inside
of a gaol through their inability to resist the tempta-
tion of adding a hare or a rabbit to the amount of food
which nine shillings a week will enable the family to
procure. It is difficult to convince the haff-starved
agricultural labourer that the wild animals of the
fields and woods, and the bir,la of the air, ought to
he the exclusive property of any man; and it is no I
wonder that, with the temptation always before him,
he eometimes givea way to it; and whilst he is in prison
his family have to be supported from the poor rates.
Lord Derby has the best of reasons for being an
optimist; few people standing in his shoes would see
the necessity for extensive changes in the laws which
so admirably support his influence and social position,
and it can only be expected that be will continue to
..ay, on the one hand to the people, "a trifling altera-
tion in the laws, and a good understanding between
landlord and tenant, will settle this question," and on
the other hand, to the farmers, "don't agitate for
repeal, as you would only have your rents raised;" but
the admissions he makes show that the time has come
for a settlement of the question, and to my mind the
only satisfactory solution is total and unconditional
abolition of the Game Lows.