PROTECTIOX OF BIG GAME 297 



fairly under its circumstance. The system is essentially 

 unfair to game ; and, directly and indirectly, is respon- 

 sible for the decimation of the Southern herds. I would 

 eai'nestly urge that this " riding-down " of game be 

 made illegal in our territories. Hitherto, the vice has 

 barely made an appearance ; but it is wise to look ahead, 

 and prevention will save cure. 



Personalty (though this is, I fear, a counsel of per- 

 fection) I would also prohibit the use of repeating-rifles 

 on game. These are military weapons, and should be 

 barred as unfair in the field of sport. 



A minor menace to game, ever recrudescent during 

 periods of passing depression, is a tendency in disap- 

 pointed settlers to grumble at its bare existence. 

 Precisely why game should cease to exist when " things 

 are bad " is not explained. That is merely an evidence 

 of " original sin " in human nature. 



Here is a modern instance. But two or three years 

 ago, the traveller-sportsman was received in East Africa 

 with open arms, welcomed as a benefactor and a power ; 

 the newspapers rapturously applauded the coming of 

 this or that Ximrod, recorded all his movements and 

 exploits ; he was, in short, received en p?'mce — and 

 charged as such I As a simple matter of fact, the 

 traveller-sportsman was (and still remains) the best 

 customer of the Colony ; while the game is still its best 

 asset. 



But a change has come over the spirit of this dream. 

 Our friends in East Africa have " boomed " overmuch ; 

 their speculations were unduly sanguine, and they are 

 passing through the consequent reaction — financial 

 crises, lack of credit, and that sort of thing. Of course 

 the fault cannot be theirs; a scapegoat must be found, 

 and " the game " will serve the purpose. The local 

 newspapers out there, which, a year before, brimmed over 

 with praise of " the glorious game," now sing in opposite 

 key. They see (or pretend to see) a specific for the ills 

 of over-speculation and faulty foresight, in the destruc- 

 tion of the Colony's one asset of present current value — 



