CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES 449 



it ought not to prove difficult to obtain the consent of a local council to 

 accept the burden of ownership. 



Delegates present will, it is hoped, understand that what has been said 

 must not be regarded as committing in any way the members of the 

 Organising Committee who have suggested the subject now dealt with, or 

 the members of the Council of the British Association who have asked that 

 the subject be considered at this conference. If what has been said be 

 objected to, the fault lies with the speaker. Briefly summarised, his belief 

 is that local societies can best help to safeguard the amenities of their own 

 areas by taking a more active part than many of them have taken in the past 

 in securing possession of ' places of natural beauty ' and handing these over, 

 with adequate endowment funds, to the National Trust. His belief also is 

 that local societies can best help to preserve the flora and the fauna of the 

 countryside by securing, whenever possible, suitable ' sanctuaries for wild 

 life ' and handing these over, with adequate endowment funds, to the 

 Society for the Promotion of Nature Reserves. They can do something 

 to repair the damage already done, and the destruction already caused, by 

 establishing and if possible endowing local gardens and parks, equipped 

 with adequate vivaries and nurseries, and persuading their local authorities 

 to take over these ' asylums for the conservation of wild life.' Local 

 societies should avoid, at all costs, the burden of ownership of any of these 

 safeguards : it is always an unsound principle to possess watch-dogs and 

 bark oneself. 



Local societies may anticipate many difficulties and much opposition, 

 some of it due to self-interested motives, but more of it due to misunder- 

 standing. This need not discourage them, provided they are on good 

 terms with and enjoy the sympathy of their own local authorities. With 

 that behind them, local societies can do much : if they neglect to establish 

 cordial and sympathetic relationships with their own local authorities, local 

 societies can hardly hope to render much assistance either in the preservation 

 of the amenities of their own areas or in the conservation of the flora or the 

 fauna of the countryside. 



At the conclusion of the President's Address, Dr. Vaughan Cornish 

 dealt with the Conservation of Wild Life in Relation to the Scheme for 

 National Parks, urging the importance of taking steps without undue 

 delay to preserve representative regions of wild scenery in England for the 

 recreation of the people. He pointed out that the establishment of pro- 

 tected nature reserves within the wider area of a national park is not 

 incompatible with the free recreation of the people, for which such parks 

 would be established, since, while the breeding ground of rarer animals 

 and birds would be protected, the birds themselves would be free to fly 

 far beyond, and even rare flowers would spread beyond the protected 

 area, which would really add to the enjoyment of the main area in which 

 the people would roam without restriction. Thus there is no insuperable 

 difficulty in the co-operation of sociologists and naturalists in the scheme 

 for national parks, and any conflict of aims is more apparent than real. 



A discussion followed in which Prof. F. G. Baily, Mr. H. Burgess, 

 Prof. J. E. Duerden, Mr. H. E. Forrest, and Mr. H. E. Salmon took part. 



