ORAL ARGUMENT OF SIR CHARLES RUSSELL, Q. C. M. P. 25 



Sir EiCHARD Webster. 



Tlie least reflection will declare to an observer that, while a fnr-seal moves easier 

 on land ami freer than any or all other seals, yet, at the same time, it is an unusual 

 and laborious effort, even when it is voluntary; therefore, when thousands of young 

 male seals are suddenly aroused to their utmost power of land locoi>!otiou over 

 rough, sharp rocks, rolling clinker stones, deep loose sand, mossy tussocks, and 

 other equally severe impedimenta, tiiey in their fright exert themselves most vio- 

 lently, crowd in confused sweltering liea])s one upon the other, so that many are 

 often smothered to death; and, in this manner of most extraordinary effort to be 

 urged along over stretches of unbroken miles, they are obliged to use muscles and 

 nerves that nature never intended them to use, and which are not fitted for the 

 action. 



This prolonged, sudden and unusual effort, unnatural and violent strain, must 

 leave a lasting mark upon the physicMl comlition of every seal tiius driven, and 

 then suffered to escape from the clubbed pods on the killing-grounds; they are 

 alternately heated to the point of sutFocation, gasping, panting, allowed to cool 

 down at intervals, then abruptly started up on tlie road for a fresh renewal of this 

 heating as they lunge, shamble and creep along. When they arrive on the killing- 

 grounds, alter four or five hours of thif? distressing effort on their part, they are 

 then suddenly coobd otf for the last time prior to the linal ordeal of clubbing; then 

 when driven up into the last surround or ''pod", if the seals are spared from 

 cause of being untit to take, too big or too little, bitten, etc., they are permitted to 

 go off from the kiirnig-groun<l back to the sea, outwardly unhurt, most of them; 

 but I am now satisfied that they sustain in a vast majority of cases internal injuries 

 of greater or less degree, that remain to work physical disability or death thereafter 

 to nearly every seal thus released, and certain destruction of its virility and courage 

 necessary for a station on the rookery, even if it can possibly run the gauntlet of 

 driving throughout every sealing season for five or six consecutive years, driven 

 over and over again as it is during each one of these sealing seasons. 



Therefore, it now appears ])lain to me that those young male fur-seals which may 

 hai)pen to survive this terril)le strain of seven years of driving overland are rendered 

 by this act of driving wholly worthless for breeding purposes — they never go to the 

 breeding grounds laud take up stations there, being utterly demoralized in spirit 

 and in body. 



With this knowledge, then, the full effect of "driving" becomes apparent, and 

 that result of slowly but surely robbing the rookeries of a full and sustained supply 

 of fresh young male Idood, demanded by Nature imperatively, for their support up 

 to the standard of full expansion (such as I recorded in 1872-74), — that result began, 

 it now seems clear, to set in from the beginning, twenty years ago, under the present 

 system. 



Sir Chahles Russell. — Now at a later stage and in a different con- 

 nection 1 shall have to dl•a^v the attention of the Tribunal aoain to the 

 statement at the bottom of page 264 of the British Counter- 

 750 Case as to the certain destruction of its virility and courage 

 necessary to the male seal for a station on the rookeries, as one 

 cause Avhicli has contributed largely (with others I admit) to the 

 deficiency in numbers. 



Then on the same page is the Treasury Agent's (Mr. Goff) Report for 

 ISDO. This has nothing to do, you will understand, with the Report of 

 ]Mr. P^lliott. This is the independent Report of the Treasury Agent. 



Sir Richard Webster, 



Now, in opening the season it is customary to secure all the two-year olds and 

 upwards possible before the yearlings begin to fill up the hauling grounds and mix; 

 with the killable seals. By so doing it is much easier to do the work, and the year- 

 lings are not tortured by being driven and redriven to the killing grounds. 



Heretofore it was seUlom that more than 15 per cent of all the seals driven in the 

 latter part of June and the first few days of July were too small to be killed but 

 this season the case was reversed and in many instances 80 to 85 per cent were 

 turned away. The accompanying percentage examples will shew the disposition of 

 this year's drive. The first killing of fur-seals by the lessees was on the 6th of June 

 ami the scarcity of killable seals was apparent to all. 1 he season closed on the 20th 

 of July, and the drives in July shew a decided increase in the percentages of small 

 seals turned away and a decrease in the killables over the drives of June, demon- 

 strating conclusively that there were but few killable seals arriving, and that the 

 larger ])art of those returning to the islands were the pups of last year. The aver- 

 age daily killing for the season was 400, or a daily average of 522 including only the 



