A Victorij for Aviculture: The Penguins of Macquarie Island 87


which asked £15,000 for it. This was rather high, seeing that the

island was leased for £40 a year for private exploitation. Dr. Mawson

had said there would very soon be a dash into Antarctica to secure its

furs and oils, and it was very desirable that the Federal Government

should step in and make a sanctuary on Macquarie Island. Mr. Lord

seconded the motion, which was carried, and the Council was empowered

to take action even to the expenditure of funds to secure the object of

the motion.”


Our sister association, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds,

now reports as follows in Bird Notes and News :—


“ The long-continued efforts of the Society on behalf of the

persecuted Penguins of Macquarie Island have at last borne the fruit

desired. It is announced that the Government of Tasmania has

refused to renew the lease of the island to Mr. Joseph Hatch and his

oil company, which for years has been massacring the birds at the

rate of a million and a half a year for the sole purpose of boiling them

down for their oil. It may be remembered that as long ago as 1905

a resolution carried at the International Ornithological Congress, at

the instigation of the Society, was cabled to the Tasmanian Government

protesting against the business ; but unhappily the lease was later on

renewed. Letters of remonstrance and appeal have since been addressed

by the R.S.P.B. to the New Zealand and Tasmanian Governments, and

to the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth. The subject was again

brought forward last March at the Annual Meeting of the R.S.P.B. ;

Mr. Mattingley, the Society’s representative in Australia, offered his

services to go over and investigate the facts ; Mr. Pycraft ventilated

the matter in the Press ; Mr. H. G. Wells made it the subject of a

powerful passage in The Undying Fire ; Sir Douglas Mawson spoke

strongly upon it before the Zoological Society of London ; Mr. Cherry-

Garrard roused public opinion through The Times and the Spectator.

At last the hideous slaughter is brought to an end.


“ ‘ We venture to hope,’ says The Times (December 29, 1919),

‘ that a further step will be taken, and that means will be found to

make Macquarie Island an inviolable sanctuary for Antarctic life.’ ”



