THE AFRICAN ELEPHANT 



cient supply to carry over the longest drought would 

 cost a considerable amount. 



" These difficulties appear to your Committee 

 to be so serious that it could not reasonably be ex- 

 pected that the Provincial resources should be called 

 upon to surmount them unaided. If, as your Com- 

 mittee believes, the preservation of the animals is 

 a national matter, the Union Government should 

 be invited to undertake the task. If it should not 

 see its way to do so, your Committee can only express 

 its conviction, which it does with the most extreme 

 regret, that there is no alternative but extermination. 



" If, as a last resource, extermination be decided 

 upon, or in the alternative a material reduction of 

 numbers, the means of killing the animals will have 

 to be considered. Even with a number of experi- 

 enced big-game hunters the difficulties will be very 

 considerable ; and your Committee certainly does 

 not recommend that the task be committed to 

 amateurs. If a number of Elephants were wounded 

 or merely stricken with panic, they would spread 

 terror and destruction over the countryside. Poison- 

 ing has been suggested, but your Committee con- 

 tents itself with merely noting the suggestion. Its 

 adoption would probably be received with a howl of 

 indignation from the sporting and scientific world. 



" In conclusion, your Committee would empha- 

 sise that this Report cannot profess to be anything 

 more than merely tentative. The dilemma with 

 which it has been faced is so difficult, and the issues 



VOL. Ill 273 iS . 



