Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1875-06-15
Game Laws i'm Europe.

/
| | want to tell your readers something
about European game, game laws and
| game preservation. In Great Britain.
France. Belgium, Germany and Austria
| the idea which underlies all legislation
is that hunting is use of land adherent
| to the soil, and goes with it-that the
right to kill game on a given tract of
land is as much use of it as is the grow
ing of timber or of grain, or the rearing
| of cattle. Thus the sentiment of the
people holds that it is as much an in
vasion of the proprietor's rights to kill
the game as to kill the poultry. The
trespass in the case of poultry is one
against right and property. In the
matter of game, the trespass is not so
much upon the property in game, as
upon that use of the land which gives to
the owner a qualified or conditional
property in the game, and an uncon-
ditional (save as modified by police
regulations and exclusive right to kill it
on his premises. The hunting use of the
land is in law separable and in practice
often separate; or, in other words, A.
the landowner, can let to 3, farmer.
the agricultural uses of the land, and TO
@, sportsman, the hunting or shooting.
Most of our best lawyers in America
will, think, agree that the common
law" gives just these rights to all Amer |
lean land owners. The difficulty with |
US, however, is that our State statutes |
provide no laws adequate to the pro- |
lection OF these rights. The laws of |
trespass regard only the wrongful occu- |
pancy of land, not the wrongful Occu-
pancy of a franchise. According to our
law of trespass, the sneak who tramples
down your grass while hunting rabbits
with bag and ferrets is no more of
trespasser than he who, on his way
from church, walks through the fields
chanting the 199lh psalm The tres
passer is punished for the damage he
does to grass or grain or plowed land.
etc, but not for usurping a franchise.
Police regulations may provide punish
ment for catching the rabbits with the
help of ferrets or out of season, but not
Tor catching rabbits on another mars
land
Iu almost all Europe the law Furnishes
not only for wrongful occupancy and
for the damage done during that occu-
pancy, for catching the rabbits by for
bidden means and at forbidden time
but Furnishes also for the trespass upon
the franchise-the hunting g-the shoot
ing use of the land. Herein is seen the
marrow of game laws. The details of
the law for the protection of the tran
chise differ in different countries. The
scheme of each countTys statutes en-
braces mostly the same purposes. In
the first place, the trespasser upon occu-
pancy is dealt with according to his in
tent. That IS to say, the Offense is
the greater if, in addition TO being
on the premises, he has in
his possession the implements of a
poacher. In the second place, the tres
pass is more serious if in the night, or if s
ne carries arms with which he may
resist arrest, or if the trespasser goes in
company with others. The two latter !
Deffs5Ts fsifTiss'''w VINO guard the game, i. e., the
owner or his keepers. For the purpose
Of efficiency of execution of the law, I
or their equivalents are {
I'd hoe officers of the peace. Then again |
he traffic in game is so regulated as to |
prevent the sale of game un'awfully 8
killed. [
Inasmuch as the shooting franchises 7
are iDterdependent, police regulations /
ire framed 10 make their use equitable b
md peaceful. Inasmuch as the quantity C
If game touches the question of a
lation's food and the values of landed '
the law regulates the time for i
Killing each kind of game, both of the '
yarieties which are permanently domi n
lied and those which are migratory, as {
we'll as the means of capture. In ad- h
litiJ to this, almost everywhere a Ii n
,ense is required before a franchise can t
,e exercised. In some countries, the '
of firearms is prohibited, un- c
ess a license has been obtained. I
The effect of these regulations is that I
. Game is more plentiful than with US a
n equally populated districts; ?. 1t is a
heaper in the same conditions; 3. The v
and has added to it, as compared with n
hat of America, very considerable Il
'alue; the rental being IN many cases e
more than the killed game would sell
or; 4. For all this, the average gunner C
ills his game at less actual cost, all a
hings considered, than in America. - St
Goldsmith, in : springfield Republican.