THE LAW RELATING TO DEER AND GROUND GAME 
said shall have power to authorize anyone else to kill a hare. By section 2 
a person so authorized is not liable to any of the assessed taxes payable 
for a gamekeeper. 
HARES’ PRESERVATION ACT, 1892 
55 & 56 Viet., c. 8 
It seems strange that the legislature having passed an Act in 1880 
giving occupiers the right to kill hares at any time on land in their occupa- 
tion, should, twelve years later, pass another Act for their preservation. 
The fact is that the operation of the Ground Game Act during that interval 
caused a woeful decrease in the number of hares throughout the country, 
and in some places they became practically exterminated. It was necessary, 
therefore, to put some check upon their destruction without going so far 
as to repeal the Ground Game Act, and it was thought that the evil might 
be lessened by fixing a close time, during which it should be illegal to sell, 
or expose for sale, any hare or leveret in any part of Great Britain. Accord- 
ingly the Act of 1892 made it unlawful to sell hares during the months of 
March, April, May, June and July; but by omitting the word “kill” 
and allowing “ foreign hares ” to be sold at any time, the measure proved 
of very doubtful value. To have inserted the word “ kill ” would have 
counteracted the effect of the Ground Game Act so far as hares are con- 
cerned, while the omission of it leaves things much as they were. For 
it cannot be doubted that, under the guise of foreign hares, many an 
English one is sent to market. Just as in the case of English partridges, 
the excuse made in some quarters for selling them during the close time 
is that they are imported from abroad. 
HARES’ PRESERVATION (IRELAND) ACT, 1879 
42 & 43 Viet., c. 23 
The preamble to this Act states that “whereas hares form an important 
article of food and have of late years greatly decreased in number in Ireland 
by reason of their being inconsiderately slaughtered, and owing to their 
marketable value it is important to provide for their protection during 
the breeding season.” Accordingly it is enacted that any person who shall 
kill, take, or have in his possession any hare or leveret between April 20 
and August 12 shall forfeit and pay for every such hare, such a sum not 
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