288 



Referring to this Park, Mr. Barnard, in writing to me,. 

 states that "Our (Wilson's Promontory) Park will never be a 

 place of amusement like yours. You see it is 125 miles from 

 Melbourne. At pr&sent it is never visited, but as time goes 

 on. I hope a hospice may be established there, so that folks can 

 go and admire the scenery and game, etc., when stocked. We 

 really have nothing like your park in Victoria. The nearest 

 approach is the reserve at Fern Tree Gully, 23 miles from Mel- 

 bourne, at the south end of the Dandenong Ranges. Its area 

 is about 800 acres, nearly all of which is steep hills covered with 

 timber, scrub, ferns, etc. Only about an acre at the bottom is 

 available for playground." 



Referring to the value of Wilson's Promontory for preserv- 

 ing many species of plants from extinction, Professor Ewart 

 says that. "it is sincerely to be trusted that none of our en- 

 demic species will be suffered to become absolutely extinct, 

 when a special harbour and sanctuary exists for them. A species 

 once extinct cannot be revived by any means, and to allow 

 plants to become extinct before all their economic possibilities 

 had been thoroughly tested, is a wanton wasting of the hidden 

 treasures which Nature scatters lavishly around us." 



In New Zealand there is a Scenery Preservation Board, 

 on whose recommendations a great number of reservations along 

 river banks and railway lines have been made — on one river 

 54 reservations, amounting to 46,500 acres. Up to March 31, 

 1908, 117 reservations had been made in various parts of 

 New Zealand, amounting to 34,000 acres. Much of the land had 

 to be repurchased at a cost of over £15,000. 



This example has been followed in Victoria, where the Na- 

 tional Parks' Association was inaugurated in December of last 

 year (1908). Since then the executive, which is composed of 

 representatives of the various scientific societies of Victoria, 

 has been steadily gathering information as to desirable places 

 for reservation. This, perhaps, is beyond the scope of our 

 Fauna and Flora Committee, but something might and ought to. 

 be done in this way in this State before it is too late. Shall we 

 enlarge the scope of our Committee, or try an amalgamation of 

 various societies likely to be interested? 



In dealing with the State of Victoria, I have referred only 

 to the National Park at Wilson's Promontory. The informa- 

 tion I gave was obtained partly from a careful perusal of the 

 Victorian Naturalists" for some years past, in which magazine 

 reference to the steps taken to secure this splendid reserve was 

 made from time to time, and partly from correspondence with a 

 personal friend in Melbourne. Now that I have before me the offi- 

 cial reply to my questions sent to that capital, I find that 

 there are seven National Parks in Victoria, having a total area 

 of 166,300 acres. With the exception of a comparatively small 

 area at Tower Hiil of 1,360 acres, which was proclaimed in 

 1892, and is chiefly a tourist resort, all of these reserves were 

 proclaimed either in 1908 or 1909, three of them as recently as 

 October of last year. A feature of special interest to us is that 

 the chief reason of these recent reservations was for the purpose 

 of protecting the native fauna, showing, it would appear, the 

 advance of public opinion on this subject. These parks seem to 

 be well distributed through the State, and embrace mountain, 

 sea coast, lake, and island, the last being known as Snake Is- 

 land. Whether the snakes, from which presumably the place 



