“AN ACT TO PREVENT THE RECKLESS DESTRUCTION OF DEER.
SECTION 1. The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact, That if any person shall hunt for with gun, or chase with a dog, or shall kill or destroy any deer running wild in the woods, between the fifteenth day of January and the first day of September next thereafter ensuing, unless in an enclosure surrounded by a sufficient fence, at least five feet high, and where such person shall have a lawful right so to do, the person so offending shall pay a penalty of fifty dollars for each and every offense to any person or persons suing for the same, one-half for his use and the other for the use of the public school or schools of the school district or districts wherein the offense is committed, and the offender shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction shall pay a fine of not less than ten dollars, or be imprisoned, or both, at the discretion of the court.
SEC. 2. In the event that no one has brought a prior suit, and prosecuted the same in good faith for the penalty prescribed in the preceding section, it shall be the duty of the school committee of any township where the said offense shall be committed, to sue for the same, and the whole of their recovery shall be to themselves for the use of their school district. And it shall further be their duty to cause any person so offending to be prosecuted, by indictment, for such offense.
SEC. 3. That the provisions of this act shall not apply to the county of Johnston and all other counties east of the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad, or through which the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad passes, nor to the counties of Madison, Yancey, Cumberland, Harnett, Columbus, Anson and Sampson.
SEC. 4. This act shall be in force from and after its ratification.”
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Public Laws of the State of North Carolina, Passed by the General Assembly at Its Session 1871-‘72 begun and Held in the City of Raleigh on the Twentieth Day of November, 1871; to Which Are Prefixed a Register of State Officers, Members of the General Assembly and Judiciary, and a List of Commissioners of Affidavits (Raleigh, NC: Theo N. Ramsay, 1872), 115. Chapter 68—An Act to Prevent the Reckless Destruction of Deer, §§ 1-4. Ratified January 26, 1872.