THE WILD FAUNA OF THE EMPIRE 



55 



if by magic to unexampled prosperity. Of course, if one man is 

 allowed to roam about or to settle m a game reserve, why not 

 another, and as under the circumstances it might be unreasonable 

 to deny the right to carry firearms as a protection against preda- 

 tory animals, rifles would have to be allowed ; speedily would 

 follow the complaint that, as, owing to the distance from civilisa- 

 tion, it was impossible to obtain any meat, white men wore being 

 confronted with starvation in the midst of plenty, and that con- 

 sequently reasonable shooting for food should be permitted, it 

 might seem unjust to deny this privilege, and where would it 

 end? 



The mere fact of irresponsible persons being allowed facilities 

 to enter a game reserve equipped with firearms, means very strict 

 supervision, only to bo adequately carried out by a very much 

 larger staff than is commonly available. In fact, remove _ all 

 restrictions as to traffic, and a game reserve becomes one in little 

 more than name, or can only be properly maintained at a pro- 

 hibitive outlay. 



That a game reserve hinders the development of a country is 

 an argument which will seldom bear investigation. 



No government of the present day wants to crowd out white 

 settlers in order to maintain a paradise for wild animals, and in 

 fact sites would appear to have been usually selected where the 

 scantiness of the white popirlation, and the abundance of other 

 land available negatived any likelihood of their being required^ for 

 a very considerable time, even when not chosen in such malarious 

 or arid localities as utterly precluded any idea of a European 

 making his home there. 



A very favourite weapon which comes readily to the hand of 

 the agitator against game reserves is the statement that these 

 institutions foster and encourage the breeding of carnivorous 

 animals, and in this manner constitute a public danger, as the 

 beasts of prey will wander out and ravage the surrounding and 

 inhabited districts. 



Now it must surely be obvious that the increase of game in any 

 given district must tend, not to drive away the carnivora, but 

 rather to retain them inside, where they can obtain a good supply 

 of their natural food ; there can be little inducement to them to 

 leave these happy hunting-grounds, in order to pick up a precarious 

 livelihood further afield. Even when left entirely to themselves, 

 predatory animals never increase out of proportion to the game 

 which provides their food, as is sometimes ignorantly stated, 

 always supposing that man does not stop in and, by destroying 

 the game, unduly upset the balance of Nature. The latter indeed 

 may be trusted to be a tolerably good regulator of such matters, 

 and if she suffered her laws to be so inefficiently drawn up as to 

 allow the purely flesh-eating animals to be equally prolific with 

 the others, surely, long before man made his appearance upon the 

 scene at all, the latter would have entirely disappeared, and the 

 former been reduced either to altering their diet or to preyingupon 



