At the present time the opossum skin fur is one of the most souglu. after in 

 the world; and the opossum poacher runs many risks to get skins. Under scien- 

 tific protection as instanced at the Wilson's Promontory Sanctuary, Victoria, one 

 of the few places as yet where it has been carried out, the opossums have in- 

 creased in such numbers as to become almost a menace to their food plants. 



An opossum farm, at the present values, should pay almost as well as a 

 sheep station, if the promoters could be protected against poachers and guaran- 

 teed rights over suitable forest areas. 



The demand for fur skins is not diminishing in the least, while the supply is 

 lessening all the time. The great Russian supplies will take years to get back to 

 former proportion, and the fur trappers of North America are being driven fur- 

 ther north into the Arctic regions every year. Under the Queensland Act, opos- 

 sums and native bears are protected from November 1st to April 30th in the fol- 

 lowing year, but the period is often altered. This year the open season was from 1st 

 April to the 31st July. Native bears have been protected the whole of this year. 

 The fee for a trapper's licence lor opossums and native bears is 5/ per annum. 

 I am informed on good authority that there has been an immense slaughter of 

 opossums in Southern Queensland this last open season, men easily making £10 a 

 week shooting opossums. 



The Field Investigation of the Mouse and Rat "Plagues. The enormous 

 swarms of mice that appear in our south-western country and cause such damage 

 to wheat are worthy of careful study, and there is no reason, if united action was 

 taken under proper direction, that they could not be checked and destroyed before 

 they came into the wheat areas. Two years ago they were the cause of the loss of 

 over a million pounds' worth of wheat at the very lowest estimate. Plagues of 

 native rats and mice in a more limited way often appear in the same manner 

 travelling eastward. Though so numerous we know little or nothing of their 

 habits, range or food supplies. 



The Study of Introduced Birds and Animate. Through the neglect of ordin- 

 ary precautions we have in times gone by allowed a number of birds and animals 

 to be introduced from foreign countries. These, without the natural checks that 

 controlled their undue increase in their native lands, have spread far and wide in 

 Australia, and are now serious pests. Leaving the rabbit out of the question, we 

 have the fox, the starling, and the sparrows, all taking toll of our agricultural and 

 pastoral products 



Power to Stop the Introduction of other Foreign Birds, Animals, or other 

 Creatures. We have had a number of suggestions during the last ten years for 

 further interference with our fauna. One resident of South Africa approached 

 the pastoralists some years ago with a proposal to introduce the Red Meat Ant, 

 Borylus helvolus, from that country into Australia to kill out the rabbits. On 

 inquiry, I found that the ant in question was a regular household pest in its 

 native land. Tt was seriously proposed to introduce the eland and turn it adrift 

 in the Australian bush . Within the last few years suggestions have been made \,~i 

 introduce American and African carrion-eating birds to fight the blowfly pest. 



The Migration of Birds. As in other parts of the world, many of our native 

 birds are migratory, returning from the south to the north as winter approaches, 

 following the summer and their food supplies, and returning from the north the 

 following spring. Some have the popular name of "summer birds" on account of 

 this habit. There is much valuable information to be tabulated about their move- 

 ments and breeding habits if they were under trained observation. 



Uniform State Laws. The illicit destruction of protected animals and bird- 

 can only be checked by uniform laws in all our States. 



