38 THE SOCIETY EOE THE PRESEBVATION OF 



simplest cases of breaches of the Game Regulations should be 

 submitted to a senior official, and I should be happy to consider 

 all such cases, and issue any instructions that might he considered 

 necessary ; but I consider that it would be more satisfactory if the 

 Ranger himself was of sufficient seniority to deal with all breaches 

 of the Regulations. 



' 8. With regard to native hunters, I believe few, if any, are in 

 possession of firearms, and that they rely entirely on their own 

 primitive methods of killing game, viz. bows and poisoned 

 arrows, spears, and pits. The Dorobo, Wasania, Waboni, and a 

 few others, who have lived for generations by hunting as a means 

 of livelihood, may be considered as entitled to kill game in their 

 own districts, and even if wo were in a position to prevent them 

 it would, I submit, be unfair to do so. On the other hand, the' 

 Wakamba and Kavirondo, who are agriculturists and also rich in 

 stock, have been, and still are, but to a lesser extent, in the habit 

 of organising largo hunting parties and killing game wholesale 

 outside their own districts, and I hold that these people have no 

 hereditary right to do so. In their own districts there is no game, 

 and it is only within the last ten years or so that the Wakamba 

 have dared to leave the confines of their own districts and enter 

 the adjoining game country, owing to the dread of the Masai. 

 The Masai no longer molest them. The same remarks apply to 

 the Kavirondo of the lower Nyando Valley. Up to the time of the 

 military operations against the Nandi in 1900 these Kavirondo 

 never hunted in the valley, for fear of the Nandi on one side and 

 the Lumbwa on the other ; but since then, and up to quite 

 recently, they have destroyed the game wholesale. This has now, 

 I believe and hope, been stopped. It is, however, much more 

 difficult, if not impossible, to deal with the Wakamba referred to 

 by Mr. Percival, who enter the Southern Reserve at various points 

 at night, and there is no chance of our being able to deal with 

 them until the staff of the Ranger has been increased. 



' The question of placing the Ranger in a position to deal with 

 the matter of game preservation in a proper and effective manner 

 is one of great importance to the country. It is acknowledged by 

 everyone who has visited East Africa that there is no other country 

 in the world where game is found in such plenty and variety, and 

 at the present moment it is indisputably one of the most important 

 assets we have. 



' Great numbers of sportsmen from Europe and America are 

 now visiting the country, and others, in increasing numbers, will 

 follow. 



' Over and above the large sums of money spent and circulated 

 throughout the country by them, a considerable amount of which 

 comes back to us in the form of hut tax, the revenue alone from 

 game licences, Customs dues on rifles, ammunition and camp 

 outfit, railway fares and other dues, cannot be less than £20,000, 

 probably more. 



' Our only hope of keeping up the revenue from this source. 



