30 THE SOCIETY FOE THE PEESEEVATION OF 



It is a fact that in the Barberton district outside the Eeserve 

 the tsetse-fly has disappeared with the extermination of the 

 buffalo, but it is by no means certain that it has gone because of 

 their practical extinction ; for there are still buffalo in the Eeserve 

 and no tsetse. There are plenty of zebra and other big game 

 within and without the Eeserve and no tsetse. My own idea is 

 that the kind of forest country has quit-e as much to do with tsetse 

 as the presence of buffalo, and that tsetse come and go in such 

 places as present conditions more or less favourable to their pro- 

 pagation. If it is found that tsetse reappear in the Eeserve with 

 the increase of buffalo, the latter must be sacrificed; but I believe 

 it may prove that buffalo can exist there without bringmg tsetse. 



A great deal has been done outside the Eeserve in three years 

 to save species of antelope from extinction and to increase largely 

 the stock of others (such as roan, kudu, waterbuck, &c.), which 

 was getting terribly low. The Game Preservation Ordinance has 

 done great good and been well supported by the public, though 

 subjected to a large amount of criticism, but on the whole sensible 

 criticism. No doubt improvements can be made in the law which, 

 while not impairing its objects, would secure even a larger amount 

 of approval. The law requires adjusting to the needs of each par- 

 ticular district. Some species of antelope are very numerous in 

 one district, or on some farms, and are extinct, or on the verge of 

 extinction, in others. In the Barberton district you may have (or 

 more correctly there are) large farms or estates on which a fine 

 head, say, of reedbuck, or rooi rhebok, had been for years carefully 

 maintained ; and because the species was exterminated, or nearly so, 

 on all surrounding lands, the proprietor is prevented by the Ordi- 

 nance from enjoying any of the results of his care and trouble. 



Now each district (generally the magisterial) has its own branch 

 of the Transvaal Game Protection Society, and each district 

 appoints its own committee to watch its interests, and sends dele- 

 gates to the Central Council. The constitution is perfectly demo- 

 cratic, and through this machinery the general and local needs are 

 brought before the notice of the Government and the final recom- 

 mendations made by the Society regarded as authoritative. Thus 

 the Ijieutenant-Governor or Colonial Secretary under the powers 

 vested in these officials under the Ordinance can prohibit, restrict, 

 or permit the killing of particular species. Ultimately the sur- 

 vival or extinction of the more interesting and rarer fauna will 

 depend on the public voice. During the two years I acted as 

 Eesident Magistrate in the Barberton district (over 5,000 square 

 miles in extent) we preserved most strictly all the rarer animals, 

 and I think the following notes give a pretty accurate account of 

 how things stood in April 1905 outside the Eeserve : ^ 



1 I have placed * a,2:ainst those entirely protected, and f against those 

 temporarily protected for a term of years or by withholding from season to 

 season the issue of licences. 



