SPORT AN AID TO EFFICIENT ADMINISTRATION 



system of selection for the Indian service, then being much 

 discussed in India, and I remember thinking at the time 

 how much more fitted a man with such tastes and tempera- 

 ment was to fill the position he held than the possibly 

 cleverer, but often physically inferior, weak-sighted book- 

 worms, of whom too many had already been appointed to 

 the various civil services of India. 



Here, for example, was one who, because he happened 

 to have been born a sportsman, was constantly on the 

 move, visiting parts of the district most difficult to get at, 

 and thus coming into close and constant contact with 

 people whom he would not otherwise have met, and there- 

 fore able to judge things for himself instead of through the 

 medium of the possibly faked reports of his subordinates 

 to say nothing of the good he was doing by ridding the 

 country of every tiger, bear or leopard that he came across 

 in his wanderings through those unfrequented wilds where 

 no European had ever been before. 



Nor, later on, when camping with him through his 

 charge, had I any reason to alter my opinion, for at every 

 halt we made, whether for one night or a week, the 

 villagers would come flocking round him with their griev- 

 ances, which he would discuss with them and remedy, if 

 possible, at once, and in his turn elicit from them all the 

 tittle-tattle of the village. 



Thus, combining business with pleasure, we had been 

 touring together about a week, and had encamped one 

 day near a village bordering on an unusually heavy jungle. 

 It was Christmas Eve, and, having just dined, we were 

 finishing our pipes and final jorum of hot grog, prior to 

 turning in, when a villager was announced with the welcome 

 intimation that he had brought " khubbur " of a tiger. 



A moment or two later, a bewildered-looking rustic, 

 escorted by one of my police-orderlies, and evidently under 

 the impression he was his prisoner for the time, was brought 

 up to the camp fire, round which we were seated, and, 

 balancing himself first on one leg then the other, after the 

 manner of his kind, told us a long rambling story, ending 

 with the somewhat startling statement that the tiger- 

 which, by the way, he had not seen was over eighteen 

 feet in length ! 



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