licences now in use are of four kinds:--
Those taken out after 31st July--
To expire on the next 31st July L3 0 0
To expire on the next 31st October 2 0 0
Those taken out after 1st November--
To expire on the next 31st July 2 0 0
Those taken out for any continuous period of
fourteen days specified in the licence 1 0 0
In the case of gamekeepers in Great Britain for whom the employer pays
the duty on male servants, the annual licence fee is L2, but the
licence extends only to lands on which the employer has a right to
kill game. A licence granted to a person in his own right and not as
gamekeeper or servant is effective throughout the United Kingdom. The
game licence does not authorize trespass on the lands of others in
search of game nor the shooting of game, &c., at night, and is
forfeited on a conviction of game trespass (1831, s. 30; 1860, s. 11).
Persons who have game licences need not have a gun licence, but the
possession of a gun licence does not qualify the holder to kill game
or even rabbits.
The sale of game when killed is also subject to statutory regulation.
Gamekeepers may not sell game except under the authority of their
employer (1831, ss. 17, 25). Persons who hold a full game licence may
sell game, but only to persons who hold a licence to deal in game.
These licences are annual (expiring on the 1st of July), and are
granted in London by justices of the peace, and in the rest of England
by the council of the borough or urban or rural district in which the
dealer seeks to carry on business (1831, s. 18; 1893, c. 73, s. 27),
and a notice of the existence of the licence must be posted on the
licensed premises. A licence must be taken out for each shop. The
following persons are disqualified for holding the licence:
innkeepers, persons holding licences to sell intoxicants, owners,
guards or drivers of mail-carts, stagecoaches or public conveyances,
carriers and higglers (1831, s. 18). This enactment interferes with
the grant of game licences to large stores which also have licences to
sell beer. The licensed dealer may buy British game only from persons
who are lawfully entitled to sell game. Conviction of an offence under
the Game Act 1831 avoids the licence (s. 22). The local licence must
also be supplemented by an excise licence for which a fee of L2 is
charged. Licensed dealers in game are prohibited from selling game
killed in the United Kingdom from the tenth day after the beginning of
close time to the end of that period. The provisions above stated
under the act of 1831 applied only to England, but were in 1860
extended to the rest of the United Kingdom, and were in 1893 applied
to dealers in game imported from abroad. The main effect of the system
of licences is to prevent the disposal of game by poachers rather than
to benefit the revenue.
_Deer_.--Deer are not included within the definition of game in any of
the English game laws. Deer-stealing was very seriously punished by
the old law, and under an act of 9 George I. c. 22, known as the
Waltham Black Act, passed because of the depredations of disguised
deer-stealers in Epping Forest, it was under certain circumstances
made a capital offence. At present offences with reference to deer are
included in the Larceny Act 1861. It is a felony to hunt or kill deer
in enclosures in forests, chases or purlieus, or in enclosed land
where deer is usually kept, or after a previous conviction to hunt or
kill deer in the open parts of a forest, &c., and certain minor
provisions are made as to arrest by foresters, forfeiture of venison
unlawfully possessed and for unlawfully setting traps for deer. These
enactments do not prevent a man from killing on his own land deer
which have strayed there (_Threlkeld_ v. _Smith_, 1901, 2 K.B. 531).
In Scotland the unlawful killing of deer is punished as theft.
_Eggs_.--The owner or occupier of land has no property in the eggs of
wild birds found on his lands unless he takes them up. But under s. 24
of the Game Act 1831 a penalty of 5s. per egg is incurred by persons
who unlawfully (i.e. without being, or having licence from, the person
entitled to kill the game) and wilfully take from the nest or destroy
in the nest the eggs of any game bird, or of a swan, wild duck, teal
or widgeon. Similar provisions exist in Ireland under an act of 1698,
and by the Poaching Prevention Act 1862 (United Kingdom) power is
given to constables to search persons suspected of poaching and to
take from them the eggs of pheasants, partridges, grouse or black
game. And the Wild Birds Protection Acts deal with the eggs of all
wild birds except game and swans.
_Damage to Crops by Game_.--Where an occupier of lands has not the
right to kill game or rabbits he runs the risk of suffering damage by
the depredations of the protected animals, which he may not kill
without incurring a liability to summary conviction or for breach of
the conditions on which he holds the land. At common law the owner of
land who has reserved to himself the sporting rights, and his sporting
tenants, must use the reserved rights reasonably. They are liable for
any damage wilfully or unnecessarily done to the crops, &c., of the
occupier, such as trampling down standing crops or breaking hedges or
fences. They are not directly liable to the occupier for damage done
to the crops by game bred on the land or frequenting it in the
ordinary course of nature; but are not entitled to turn down game or
rabbits on the land. And if game or rabbits are for the purposes of
sport imported or artificially raised on land, the person who breeds
or brings them there is liable for the damage done to the crops of
adjoining owners or occupiers (_Farrer_ v. _Nelson_, 1885, 15 Q.B.D.
258; _Birkbeck_ v. _Paget_, 31 Beav. 403; _Hilton_ v. _Green_, 1862, 2
F. & F. 821).
Recent legislation has greatly increased the rights of the occupiers
of land as against the owners of sporting rights over it. As regards
hares and rabbits the occupier's rights are regulated by the Ground
Game Act 1880 (which is expressed to be made "in the interests of good
husbandry and for the better security of capital and labour invested
in the cultivation of the soil"). By that act the occupier of land as
incident to and inseparable from his occupation has the right to kill
and take hares and rabbits on the land. The right is indefeasible and
cannot be divested by contract with the owner or landlord or even by
letting the occupier's sporting rights to another. But where apart
from the act the right to kill game on the land is vested in a person
other than the occupier, such person has a right concurrent with the
statutory right of the occupier to take hares and rabbits on the land.
The act does not extend to common lands nor to lands over which rights
of grazing or pasturage for not more than nine months in the year
exist. Consequently over such lands exclusive rights of killing ground
game still continue, and the law appears not to apply in cases where a
special right of killing or taking ground game vested before the 7th
of September 1880 in any person (other than the landlord) by statute,
charter or franchise (s. 5). The mode of exercise of the occupier's
right is subject to certain limitations. The ground game is only to be
taken by him or by persons whom he has duly authorized in writing, who
must be members of his family or his servants or bona fide employed by
him for reward to take ground game. The written authority must be
produced on demand to persons having concurrent rights to take and
kill the ground game (s. 1 (1) (c)). Firearms may not be used by
night, nor may poison be used, nor may spring traps be set except in
rabbit holes (s. 6); nor may ground game be killed on days or seasons
or by methods prohibited by statute in 1880 (s. 10).
In the case of moorland and unenclosed lands (which are not arable and
do not consist of small detached portions of less than 25 acres) the
occupier may between the 1st of September and the 31st of March kill
and take ground game; but between the 1st of September and the 10th of
December firearms may not be used (1880, s. 1 (3); 1906, s. 2). In the
case of such lands the occupiers and the owners of the sporting rights
may between the 1st of September and the 10th of December make and
enforce for their joint benefit agreements for taking the ground game.
The Agricultural Holdings Act 1906 (operating from 1909) deals, _inter
alia_, with damage to crops by deer and winged game, but does not
apply to damage by hares or rabbits. The tenant of agricultural land
is entitled to compensation for damage to his crops exceeding 1s. per
acre over the area affected if caused by game, "the right to kill or
take which is vested neither in him nor in any one claiming under him
other than the landlord and which the tenant has not permission in
writing to kill" (s. 2). The right of the tenant is indefeasible and
cannot be contracted away. Disputes as to amount are to be settled by
arbitration; but claims to be effectual must be made as to growing
crops before reaping, raising or feeding off, and as to cut crops
before carrying. In the case of contracts of tenancy created before
the 1st of January 1909, allowances are to be made if by their terms
compensation for damage by game is stipulated for, or an allowance of
an agreed amount for damage by game was expressly made in fixing the
rent. The compensation is payable by the landlord subject to his right
to be indemnified in cases where the sporting rights are not vested in
him.
_Sporting Rights_.--Sporting rights (i.e. rights of fowling or of
shooting, or of taking or killing game or rabbits, or of fishing),
when severed from the occupation of land, are subject to income or
property tax, and to assessment for the purpose of local rates (Rating