The object of this section is to enable the Minister to control hunting over certain State-owned lands which comprise either foreshore, including estuaries, or inland lakes and their accretions, that is, lakeshore land which is " created " due to permanent lowering of the water level of a lake. The areas in question are usually important wildlife habitats, particularly for wild birds. Shooting over such areas is invariably uncontrolled and can be unduly heavy except where the Minister has prohibited shooting, by annual Game Birds Protection orders made under section 6 of the Game Preservation Act, 1930, or where perhaps local game interests, by virtue of some supposed traditional rights to shoot there, may be exercising a degree of de facto control.
I know that we could have very interesting discussions on what constitutes who owns what, or what constitutes State ownership. I will tell the Committee that this section does not interfere with ownership one way or another. It does not either acquire or seek to acquire ownership or to abandon ownership, but deals with the lands mentioned in it under the ownership of the State.
