THE WILD FAUNA OF THE EMI'LRK 



71 



fairly heavy native population already armed and with a certain 

 though a small command of gunpowder, and which it is not 

 practicable either to disarm or prohibit from shooting. The 

 Administration, however, does recognise some responsibility in 

 this matter, and with Lewanika's co-operation may be able to 

 overcome the obstacles. 



But, while realising the value of such arrangements, it is 

 necessary to bear in mind a principle the truth of which is obvious : 

 it is that, speaking generally, industrial development cannot be 

 prohibited or restricted in any district in order to preserve the 

 game. By all means let us do all we can to secure our end 

 through the instrumentality of preserves, but when it becomes 

 necessary to throw any reserve open to the farmer or the miner, 

 the wild game must do its share in the development of the 

 country : the real claims of the settler must come first. I do not 

 doubt that even under circumstances of this sort, some arrange- 

 ments could still be made by means of close seasons, strict limita- 

 tion of number and sex of game allowed to be shot under each 

 licence, and so on, to ensure the continued existence o. a large 

 proportion of game even in such an expropriated area, but the 

 principle must be acknowledged that the bona fide settler's claims 

 must have the preference. 



The great factor — at any rate over a large portion of Central 

 Africa — which connects the two questions of the preservation of 

 big game and of industrial development is of course the tsetse 

 fly. Briefly, fly exists only where there is some quantity of game, 

 and so long as the fly remains in an area it is a very efficient guard 

 to the game itself, so far at any rate as the tide of civilisation as 

 represented by the farmer and the miner is concerned : the white 

 hunter and the resident native can be controlled to a great extent by r 

 law in or out of the fly country, but when the necessity arises for the 

 industrial development of a fly-infected district the first step must 

 be to clear away the fly, and this can, generally speaking, be only 

 effected at the cost of the game. I refer, of course, not to early 

 stages of the prospector's and miner's work, for many mines are 

 now being developed in fly country in Bhodesia, but to the later 

 stages when a heavily mineralised belt comes to carry a large white 

 population and when the necessities of the farmer, cattle-dealer, 

 and transport rider demand that the fly must go. I think it must 

 be accepted that fly cannot be got rid of or driven from a district 

 without killing off, or frightening away in the process, the big game 

 upon whose blood the tsetse exists. 



Finally, I should like to impress the fact that the British South 

 Africa Company has a strong appreciation of the importance of 

 the question of wild game, and that it will do what it can to ensure 

 its preservation within its borders. 



Southern Ehodesia has a very efficient Game Law, and it is 

 moreover stringently administered, and the best proof of this is 

 that it is the very genera] opinion of men who are in a position to 



judge that big game is increasing 



steadily in that territory ; and I 



