ON OSTRICH FEATHERS THEFT REPRESSION BILL. 31 



236. Will you state shortly to which clauses ^ 

 you object? If the Committee ivishes it then I m 

 should like to state shortly what are my wishes ' 



, ,, . , p ., <f , . ,, J , . , July lit. 1907. 



and the wishes or those engaged in the ostrich 

 feather industry with regard to the Bill. First of 

 all, I must tell the Committee that at a meeting of 

 my constituents in Oudtshoorn the whole Bill was 

 condemned, with the exception of a few clauses 

 which it was thought could be accepted. What we 

 wish and what is the wish of every ostrich farmer in 

 the country is to catch the feather thieves and not a 

 Bill which would be troublesome to the ostrich 

 owner and to those who buy the feathers. Now, the 

 proposed Bill would be more of a trouble to these 

 people than it will be of use in catching thieves. We 

 have gone carefully into the Bill, and we have 

 agreed that the great thing to do is to get the thief 

 into such a position that he cannot sell the stolen 

 feathers, and in order to do this we propose that 

 each ostrich farmer should be registered as an 

 owner of ostriches not that he should be regis- 

 tered as the owner of any particular number of 

 birds ; further, that every feather buyer who 

 travels about for the purpose of buying feathers 

 must keep a register, and that he shall not be 

 allowed to buy from a farmer or anyone else who 

 is not a registered feather buyer, but only from 

 those who are registered. Further, he must give a 

 duplicate receipt to the seller describing the 

 feathers he has purchased. Then all Magistrates, 

 field-cornets or police, should have the right at any 

 time if they have any suspicions to examine a 

 buyer's register to see whether his description of 

 the feathers agrees with that on the duplicate 

 receipt which the seller has. That is the best way 

 we consider to catch the thief, and that is owe of 

 the suggestions the Oudtshoorn people have made. 

 Then we thought the licence should continue to be 

 issued as it is to-day by the postmaster, and any- 

 one wishing it should be able to go to him and get 

 his licence ; but we are of opinion that it should be 



