THE PRESERVATION OF OUR FAUNA 



ENTIRELY distinct from the question referred to 

 in the last chapter, the influence of game preserva- 

 tion on our fauna, is the vast and complicated problem 

 of the preservation of a fauna and flora, for the two cannot 

 be separated, in a civilised land, or in a new country that 

 is undergoing the destructive process of fitting it for the 

 habitation and exploitation of the colonist. 



Economic questions loom large; there is little need to 

 urge control of certain animals and plants. But the word 

 " control " is misunderstood, and is usually construed as 

 synonymous with destruction. Some particular creature 

 or plant is harmful to some particular interest; " Sweep 

 it away," is the cry, " Swot this fly," " Root out this weed." 

 In our wholesale methods of removing an assumed foe 

 we may also get rid of a valuable ally. The destruction 

 of a food plant may mean the end of those creatures 

 which feed upon it; the annihilation of one particular 

 insect may destroy the plant that it fertilises. 



Our fauna includes two main constituents the native 

 or ancient, and the colonist or alien; it is with the first 

 that we are most concerned, those animals which inherited 

 this land of our birth before we, mostly descended from 

 alien invaders or colonists, decided that the land was ours, 

 not theirs. It is a strange ethical question this of pro- 

 prietorship, and man, thinking himself Lord of Creation, 

 demands, like " Cunning old Fury," the right of life and 

 death over all so-called lower animals. 



" I'll try the whole cause, and condemn you to death," 

 is the usual verdict. 



183 25 



