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WILD LIFE PROTECTION FUND 



South African Police; Messrs. T. N. de Villiers, A. S. 

 Porter, O. Pirow and A. A. Schoch, of Pretoria, and 

 Messrs. C. A. O. Bain, F. J. Finch-Smith, D. F. Gilfillan 

 and Paul Selby, of Johannesburg. Without the co-opera- 

 tion and assistance of these men I do not know how our 

 Association could continue its work, but we want more 

 help from members, and we want more members as well. 

 The Transvaal Provincial Administration recognizes the 

 Association to a large extent, as its recommendations are 

 followed in the great majority of cases. It also makes a 

 small grant to the funds, for which we are profoundly 

 thankful. 



The difficuties in South Africa are: 



(a) Our country dwellers have for generations been ac- 

 customed to shooting where and when they like, and 

 game restrictions and laws are irksome to them. 

 Poaching on either Government and private grounds, 

 and contravention of the laws are not, apparently, 

 looked upon as crimes. 



(b) The enormous extent of territory still unsettled, or 

 but thinly populated, renders detection difficult, and 

 policing insufficient for the needs of the wild life. 



(c) The natives, who are born poachers and who by 

 means of snares, traps and crowds of mongrel dogs, 

 destroy annually an enormous number of head of 

 game, chiefly young animals. Certain officials of the 

 Native Affairs Department have been appealed to 

 time and again to try and limit the number of these 

 dogs, or at least to force the natives to conform to 

 the regulations, but thus far without any appreciable 

 result. 



It will thus be seen that our difficulties are more than 

 ordinary. Add to the foregoing the onward march of civili- 



