Bird Notes and News 



were more important than the lives of birds, 

 98 per cent, of which were never seen by 

 the eye of man. 



Sir E. Cornwall seconded the Amend- 

 ment. He thought the House ought not 

 to go forward until the people employed 

 in the trade had an opportunity of stating 

 their case. He was given to understand 

 that the Bill would merely transfer the 

 trade to France. The Bill proposed to 

 hand over to the Privy Council the right 

 to add to or remove the names of birds 

 on the Schedule. The Privy Council might 

 schedule the Ostrich, and what then would 

 become of that trade? This was a business 

 proposition to be dealt with on business 

 lines, and it was unfair to the business 

 community to force the Bill through the 

 House. 



Mr. Page Croft expressed his warm 

 approval of the Bill. He himself intro- 

 duced a Bill last session which was 

 obstructed night after night, and yet their 

 opponents now raised the complaint that they 

 had not had time to consider the measure! 

 He believed it had the support not only 

 of the vast majority of Members of the 

 House, but that, throughout the length and 

 breadth of the British Empire, the desire 

 for the passing of this Bill was greater than 

 for the passage of any other Bill they had 

 had an opportunity of considering. The 

 Hon. Member had once again put forward 

 the plea that this House should not be 

 hurried, although they had been con- 

 sidering this question for the last eight 

 years. He said he was quite prepared to be 

 reasonable so long as he was not hurried. 

 That had been the position taken up by 

 the opponents of this Bill from the very 

 start. The House was tired of procras- 

 tinating with this question, and wanted to 



get to business. Figures had been quoted 

 as to the number of persons employed in 

 this industry, ranging from 1,000 to 3,000. 

 If they believed the trade bad in principle 

 from start to finish, they ought not to let 

 these numbers weigh with them, even if 

 they were 300,000 ; but it was clear to 

 anybody that so long as women wore hats 

 or desired to decorate their heads, they 

 would want decorations of some kind, and 

 if they could not have the feathers of 

 these beautiful little birds, they would use 

 other things, for the production of which 

 none would be more fitted than the girls 

 in these factories. This was admitted by 

 the London Chamber of Commerce to be 

 only a seasonal employment associated 

 with the making of other trimmings at 

 other seasons. 



Ostrich feathers constituted the bulk of 

 the trade coming to this country, and the 

 greatest Ostrich-farmers in the British 

 Empire, with whom he had discussed the 

 subject, were desirous that this Bill should 

 pass, because they believed it would be 

 an enormous encouragement to the Ostrich 

 trade of South Africa. He himself first 

 became interested in the question through 

 meeting a large number of agriculturists 

 in various parts of the Empire, especially 

 in Australia, who from time to time pointed 

 out that whatever the Dominions were 

 doing to prevent this export traffic in the 

 birds, which they desired to keep, and 

 which they considered the property of their 

 country, we, by creating this great market 

 in London, were encouraging smuggling 

 to go on notwithstanding that legislation. 

 He put it to the House that it would be 

 a great Imperial act to pass this Bill. Only 

 two or three days ago he presented a 

 petition collected in some six weeks in 



