54 THE SOCIETY FOE THE PEESEEVATION OE 



In the Transvaal the experience of four years lias conclusively 

 demonstrated that, in spite of an excellent and comprehensive set 

 of game laws, and the presence of posts of mounted police, part 

 of whose duty it is to see them enforced, and who in fact do 

 their very best in the matter, there is, in the up-country districts, 

 outside the game reserves, very little protection afforded to the 

 game in general, and very large quantities of royal game are 

 annually killed under circumstances which make it almost impos- 

 sible to bring homo the offences to the culprits. (The Transvaal 

 Game Protection Association propose the appointment of special 

 travelling game Inspectors, but lack of funds has so Ear not 

 admitted of this.) 



Now amongst any pioneer population, or any population 

 which has not long emerged from, the conditions prevalent in a 

 new country, there is certain to be found no inconsiderable number 

 of persons who in the past, either in that particular country or in 

 some other part of the Empire, have been in the habit of wander- 

 ing freely about, rifle in hand, and perhaps making a livelihood 

 almost entirely by hunting and trapping ; some of these are slow 

 to recognise that the old state of things is passing away, and are 

 sore at the innovations which render their former pursuits impos- 

 sible. Younger men and newcomers may, some of them, likewise 

 cherish a grievance that the untrammelled liberty to shoot where 

 they like, and what they like, and as much as they like, open to 

 their predecessors, is denied to them. The prospect of game 

 increasing almost under their eyes within a neighbouring reserve, 

 while less plentiful in places to which access is free, stimulates the 

 fancied sense of injury felt by these individuals, and they conse- 

 quently set their wits to work to devise some method of getting 

 the obnoxious state of affairs altered. 



It is hardly necessary to say that the sportsman, whatever his 

 previous experience may have been, gladly lends himself to help 

 carry out any project for the benefit of the fauna of any country in 

 which he happens to find himself, whether he is resident or non- 

 resident, or whether or no he happens to be from circumstances 

 entirely precluded from taking part in the pleasures of the chase. 

 It is not with the sportsman that we are concerned, but rather 

 with those who fancy that their livelihood has been interfered 

 with, as well as with the only too numerous section whose sporting 

 instincts are undeveloped, or perhaps stunted. There are others 

 again, possessed of a temperament which is roused to antagonism 

 by the mere fact of a particular portion of country being forbidden 

 to the general public for any reason. Although they may never in 

 their lives before have experienced the smallest desire to go there 

 when it was open to them to do so, the mere fact of restrictions 

 having been imposed fills them with an ardent wish to proceed 

 thither at once. The land in question is immediately pronounced 

 to be the very best in the whole country for settlement ; there 

 are untold sources of wealth being kept shut up by the authorities, 

 traders and farmers have only to arrive there in order to attain as 



