GAME LAWS. 419 



CERTIFICATE. 



PENALTY for shooting without, 201. 



To be taken out annually, in the parish or place where your as- 

 sessed taxes are paid; costs 31. 1 3s. 6d., and 1*. fee to the collector. 



Does not authorise unqualified persons to kill game, but exempts 

 them from the penalty of 201., and leaves them subject to that of 5/. 

 for non-qualification ; and also to that of 51. apiece for every head of 

 game found in their possession. 



For menial servants, hired as gamekeepers, costs I/. 5,9., and the 

 1*. fee to the collector. 



Persons, not menial servants, must have the 3^ guinea certificate, 

 and should have, also, the common gamekeeper's certificate, to hold 

 a deputation. 



When demanded by any assessor, collector, land owner, commis- 

 sioner, inspector, surveyor, occupier of land ; also gamekeeper, or 

 other person; provided the two latter produce their certificates, 

 previously to requiring yours. Penalty for refusing, 201. 



If you have not your certificate to produce, your name, and place 

 of abode, may be asked. See penalty for refusing. 



All certificates expire on the 5th of April, in each year*. 



Be careful, therefore, to receive your next certificate 

 before you recommence killing game ; in order to defy 

 all pettifogging informers. 



* A conviction, under the game laws, once took place at Godal- 

 ming, on the following curious grounds : An information was lodged 

 against a qualified gentleman, for having shot at and killed, after 

 the 5th of April, a snipe, not having a licence; and, according to 

 the literal construction of the act, the commissioners of taxes were 

 compelled to fine him in the penalty of twenty pounds, although it 

 appeared he had regularly applied for a licence, and had been in the 

 habit of sporting with a licence for some years previous. The in- 

 ference to be drawn from this conviction, therefore, is, that no man, 

 qualified or unqualified, can, as the law now stands, use a gun upon 

 his own estate or elsewhere, between the 5th of April and the 20th 

 of July (the earliest day, as it appears, on which licences are issued), 

 without subjecting himself to a similar penalty. Star newspaper. 



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