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122 President's Address : [ isf "j 



increasing in number. Some of the shire councils are also 

 having certain lands under their control, especially lakes, 

 gazetted, with the same object in view ; so there seems a good 

 chance of many of the rarer birds still remaining, despite rabbit 

 poison and pea-rifles. And, by the way, it is time that a tax 

 was put on the destructive pea-rifles. Many human lives would 

 probably be saved by so doing (fatal accidents are frequently 

 occurring), not to mention the number of useful insectivorous 

 birds which are yearly killed by thoughtless youths. 



South Australia has at present three large reserves for the 

 preservation of its fauna and flora, of a total area of 40,400 

 acres, and many private properties are also bird sanctuaries, 

 where every effort is made to protect and attract bird-life, even 

 to placing suitable nesting-boxes in trees and other places. 

 Bird-lovers in this State deserve much credit for the way in 

 v.'hich they have persevered in having their birds protected, and 

 they will surely benefit by it, as well as the public generally. 

 Much lively interest is being taken by the Education Depart- 

 ment of the State in bird matters. Illustrated articles appear 

 from time to time in T/it Sc/ioo/ Paper and Children's Hour, and 

 the Government is at present preparing coloured illustrations of 

 various protected birds for the use of the police. 



Tasmania has at present 1 1 reserves, of a total area of 26,200 

 acres, and it is to be hoped that efforts will be made by that State 

 to introduce the Lyre- Bird into that country, where it will be 

 free from the persecution of its arch-enemy, the fox. Queens- 

 land and Western Australia do not need sanctuaries nearly as 

 much as the other States mentioned, they being so much more 

 sparsely populated, but it is to be hoped that both States will 

 reserve some of their islands as sanctuaries, especially Hinchin- 

 brook Island, on the coast of Queensland, which would make a 

 splendid national reserve, as well as Bellenden-Ker and similar 

 mountains on the mainland. The Queensland Government 

 has already reserved several small islands as sanctuaries, 

 principally to prevent the destruction of Torres Straits Pigeons 

 when they migrate from New Guinea to Queensland for the 

 purpose of nesting. New Zealand, as is well known, has several 

 large bird sanctuaries, which are placed under the care of 

 wardens. 



One thing I think should surely be done, and that is to make 

 the destruction of foxes a Commonwealth matter, as, although 

 fortunately they have not yet spread over the whole of Australia, 

 it is only a matter of time when they will have done so. and 

 stringent laws should be made for their destruction. It is 

 difficult to say to what extent our ground game may suffer in 

 years to come, let alone lambs and poultry ; nothing alive seems 

 to come amiss to foxes as food, and they usually kill far more 

 than they can eat. These animals are responsible for the destruc- 



