TJIE WILD FAUNA OF THE EMPIEE 



69 



animals from one schedule to another, and to endorse upon any 

 licence whatever conditions ho considered advisable or necessary. 



The export dues were 10s. per head for game in Schedule 2, 

 and 20s. per head for game in Schedule 3. Elephants are con- 

 sidered immature when carrying tusks weighing less than 20 lbs. 

 a pair. Pines for contravening these enactments vary from £5 

 to X'100, with imprisonment for terms varying from one to twelve 

 months. It is also notified that natives shall be exempted from 

 the provisions of this proclamation. 



The first year licences were not limited, for residents were not 

 tempted to shoot more than they wanted while travelling, and it 

 was thought that visitors who undertook the long journey to 

 North-Western Ehodesia would be naturally, or by experience in 

 other countries, sufficiently good sportsmen to refrain from shoot- 

 ing more than they actually required. However, it was unfortu- 

 nately found that this was not entirely the case, and in 190G two 

 amendments to the original law were introduced under which (.1) 

 the holder of a special licence could shoot only five eland bulls 

 and one koodoo bull in Schedule 3, and in Schedule 2 only five 

 sable antelope bulls and three cows and three zebra ; (2) holders 

 of either a Special or Administrator's licence may shoot all game 

 mentioned in Schedules 2 and 3 within an area infected by the 

 tsetse fly, except only elephant, giraffe, and rhinoceros ; (3) 

 holders of either a Special or Administrator's licence may export 

 free of cost not more than three heads of each variety of game 

 shot under such licence ; beyond such allowance an export duty 

 of 10s. per head for game mentioned in Schedule 2, and 20s. per 

 head for Schedule 3, is charged. 



It must be borne in mind that at any time the Administrator 

 may declare a close season for any game which he considers needs 

 protection, and that he can, whenever necessary, constitute a 

 game reserve wherever he considers it practicable; those are valu- 

 able powers. 



The territory is a large one geographically, and it still has a 

 quantity of big game ; and there is no denying that this, even from 

 a commercial point of view, is an asset of great value. But there 

 is a point of view which differs largely, though not perhaps 

 essentially, from the purely commercial standpoint, and it is 

 that obvious one that, over and beyond the accident of his 

 position, it is plainly the duty of every thinking man to do his 

 best to stem the danger that the advancing tide of civilisation 

 unavoidably carries with it in this direction. The danger lies in 

 the facts that the facilities afforded by rapid communication, the 

 education and consequent arming of the native population, the 

 wide distribution of modern arms of precision, and the ease with 

 which the markets concerned are now reached, shall so affect not 

 only the prosperity but the very existence of the noble heritage we 

 have come into of the herds of the free game of the wild places of 

 the earth, that within not only a measurable, but a short time, we 

 shall lament with tears our eland and sable antelope, our koodoo and 



