CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES 443 



systems and the dictates of railway time-tables denied them. These visits 

 would be more welcomed by country dwellers if the visitors could be induced 

 to take back to town the unsightly litter with which they love to lard the 

 countryside. Local societies who endeavour to modify this urban custom, 

 may find ample scope for the exercise of their powers of persuasion. 



Thanks to the energy of the Commons, Open Spaces and Footpaths 

 Preservation Society it is now in the power of rambling clubs, hiking 

 parties and stray wayfarers to plan outings free from the fear of finding that 

 some speculative builder or sporting tenant has meanwhile barred against 

 them some ancient right of way. This advantage carries with it increased 

 risks to the flora and the fauna of the countryside, the prevention of which 

 may call for all the judgment and tact that local societies can command. 



The public spirit of many modern teachers has led to the creation of an 

 energetic Nature Study Union which, notwithstanding its many merits, 

 has the disadvantage of endangering the flora and the fauna of the country- 

 side. Local societies, anxious to conserve the wild life of their own areas, 

 must now be at pains to guide the enthusiasm and temper the zeal which 

 are apt to prompt earnest teachers to provide material for study, and to 

 encourage pupils to make competitive collections, on a scale so lavish that 

 little of what is rare in the wild life of a particular locality is likely to be left 

 for ' those that come after.' 



The conditions of individual local societies vary so much that any action 

 taken in response to the appeal now made must be left to the unfettered 

 judgment of each. There are, however, a few general considerations to 

 which any local society will do well to attend. The first and most important 

 of these is the maintenance of a sjTnpathetic understanding with the various 

 local authorities in its own area. This is desirable as a inatter of general 

 policy, apart altogether from threats of danger to the amenities of that area. 

 Members of local societies may not feel disposed to devote attention to the 

 details of local public affairs, yet may have special knowledge that would be 

 invaluable to local administrators : they should regard it a duty to place 

 their experience at the service of their own local authorities, if or when 

 invited to do so. One of the benefits to an area which has a local society on 

 friendly terms with its various local authorities, is the possibility that such 

 a society may be asked to give disinterested and impartial advice in cases 

 where the interests of independent local authorities threaten to clash. 

 Almost as important is the duty of local societies to remember the truth of 

 Mr. A. P. Herbert's reminder that ' it is far too commonly assumed in the 

 shires that all the really silly things happen in town,' and that the tendency 

 to make use of half-truths is as marked in the case of advocates of rural 

 interests as in that of advocates of urban interests. A season rarely passes 

 without public complaint of the action of some district council in the 

 management of its roadside trees. Less frequent, but just as pungent, are 

 the attacks on officers of the Forestry Commission for their management of 

 the public woodlands entrusted to their charge. It is true that criticisms 

 of the kind rarely receive the sanction of local societies : it is, unfortunately, 

 almost as true that local societies, who should be in a position to enlighten 

 the public of their own areas as to the real facts, rarely take pains to defend 

 their own local authorities when the latter are attacked in this way. It is 

 the duty of a local authority to attend to the comfort and the safety of its own 

 section of the community : it is the duty of the Forestry Commission to 

 further the economic interests of the State. When a local authority lops the 

 trees in an avenue ; when a forestry official substitutes soft-wooded for broad- 

 leaved trees, both are carrying out necessary operations. The attacks to 

 which both are subjected are based on half-truths : it is not ' what they do ' 



