Colonel Legge : As regards the eggs ; but we want the birds 

 protected. 



The Commissioner ob Police (Mr. Shaw) protested against the use 

 of the word barbarous in reference to anything done by Swansea people. 

 He was assured by a resident that the swans were not shot and allowed 

 to rot on the shore and in the water, but were all carried away, with, 

 possibly, the exception of a tough old customer that even the Attorney- 

 General might find hard to tackle. On the first clay of the teason as 

 many as 400 swans were shot. 



The Attorney-General : How long does a swan keep after it is 

 shot? 



Colonel Legge : It all depends upon the weather. 



Mr, Shaw : The birds were very numerous, and more flew away than 

 were shot. At the same time he cordially agreed that protection for a 

 couple of years would have a good effect. He heard that the eggs 

 were taken, but it was a difficult thing to prevent, the eggs being, as a 

 mutter of course, deposited in out-of-the-way places. He had seen the 

 lemains of swans on the shore at Macquarie Herbour, and had shot 

 them on the North-East Coast. Swans, he believed, were more 

 numerous thrcughout the colony this year than formerly. 



Colonel Legge r-peated that numbers were shot and not taken 

 away. 



The Attorney-General said that he would be very glad to introduce 

 a short amendment to the Game Act this session in the direction 

 indicated. It appeared to him that stealing the eggs was the greatest 

 evil Mr. Shaw might instruct the police to be more vigilant than 

 they had been. 



Mr. Shaw said that people went on expeditions with boats to take 

 the eggs. 



The Atiorney-General thought that in such cases they might l.e 

 caught. 



Colonel Legge : People who buy and eat the eggs are as responsible 

 as those who take and sell them. 



Mr. Clark : We should have to make it penal to have egg shells 

 about the place. The only thing seemed to be to protect the birds 

 for a year or two, 



