26 MR. E. P. STEBBIXG ON 



received or read your memorial, was to invite a re-examination 

 of the subject, with the view of deciding whether we might not 

 proceed somewhat further than we have ah'eady done." 



His idea was " to frame some kind of legislation of a permissive 

 and elastic nature, the provisions of which should be applied to 

 the various provinces of India, in so far only as they were adapted 

 to local conditions." Unfortunately, however, he did not deal 

 with one of the most difficult sides of the question, viz., the co- 

 operation of Native States ; he merely observed that this question 

 is " somewhat complicated," and expressed his belief that " The 

 Government would meet with the willing co-operation of the 

 Chiefs." 



There does not appear to be at the present moment, notwith- 

 standing the Viceroy's action, so far back as 1901, any Act or 

 Regulation issued by the Government of India, defining the 

 principles governing the protection of game, and the means by 

 which such protection should be efi'ected. 



Of late, however, mattei-s for the protection of game have to 

 some extent considerably improved, and Local Governments 

 throughotit the country have revised their Game Rules, and in 

 some cases have ordered the formation of Game Sanctuaries in 

 addition to limiting the number of head of game to be shot in a 

 district or block of forest to a definite number per year. Furthei-, in 

 certain provinces sportsmen are only allowed to kill individually 

 a certain head of each difi'erent species of animal, thus elimi- 

 nating the worst feature of the old-time sportsmen- — the butcher, 

 whose boast "was not the size of the trophies he obtained so much 

 as the member of animals he had killed. For the departures 

 thus made throughout the country I think a due meed of credit 

 should be accorded to the Nilgiri Game Association. Inaugurated 

 about 1885, this Association has now for years not only 

 protected the game of the Plateau which the sportsmen and 

 the Todas between them were surely extei-minating, but has 

 enabled an increase to be maintained and recorded. The last 

 annual reports of the Association point to a satisfactory increase 

 in the head of Saddlebacks {Heviitragus hylocrius) and the 

 Sambhar (Cervus unicolor). For some years past the number of 

 such to be shot by each sportsman has been regulated under the 

 authority of the Association, directly supported by Government. 

 The departure thus initiated in the distant Southern Plateau 

 was followed in the far North when the game of Kashmir was 

 threatened with extinction owing to the annually large recurring 

 influx of sportsmen who visited the Fair Vale. Game Protection 

 in Kashmir now forms a separate Department of the State, as, I 

 think, it should in British India, and one which has fully achieved 

 under its able head the objects anticipated from its inauguration. 

 The enlightened rvder of Chamba State also took up the question, 

 and prohibiteel all shooting except on passes issued on his own 

 authority. 



Whilst such laudable commencements were thus made to 



