’age Ten 
THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST 
May 9, 1950. 
niittee, Ornithological Association, Society 
of Arts, Botanical Society, Zoologist Society, 
Royal Geographical Society, British Fauna 
Guild, Royal Australasian Ornithologists 5 
Union, Young Women’s Christian Association, 
Women’s Christian Temperance Union, Aus- 
tralian Natives’ Association, Chamber of Com- 
merce, Pastoralists’ Association, Stock Ex- 
change, Boy Scouts, Horticultural and Flori- 
culturai Societies, Corporations of Adelaide, 
Brighton, Glenelg, Norwood, Unley, Port 
Adelaide and St. Peters, and District Councils 
of Crafers, Payneham, Woodville and Burn- 
side.” Truly an excellent cross-section of 
the public. 
It can be stated that, almost without excep- 
tion, the existing sanctuaries, excluding those 
over privately owned or leased land, were 
gazetted through the work of a handful of 
nature lovers spurred on by such persistent 
leaders as Edwin Ashby, Samuel A. White, 
Samuel Dixon, Dr. Morgan, Professor Cleland 
and one or two others. With the exception 
of Captain S. A. White and Professor Cleland 
all those to whom we owe our thanks and 
admiration for their fine leadership in efforts 
to secure protection for our Fauna and 
Flora have left us. Captain White is nearing 
the evening of a full life and now is unable 
to undertake any strenuous work or do more 
for his beloved native wild life — we owe 
him our gratitude for the splendid work he 
has accomplished. It must be pleasing to 
him to reflect on his work and realise that 
he had u4 a finger in the pie” in almost every 
campaign in the interests of our Fauna and 
Flora. Professor Cleland has in more recent 
years done splendid work seeking protective 
sanctuaries, but due to the apathy of native 
wild life lovers and the public generally to 
the greater need, widespread support to 
proposals for more Reserves has been lack- 
ing. There seems to be something of a 
splitting up of effort due apparently to a 
difference of opinion as to the policy to be 
adopted for present day protection and 
preservation methods. Some consider that 
it should consist solely of sanctuaries, giving 
little or no encouragement to the public to 
visit the areas. Others are in favor of, in 
some measure, exploiting our Fauna and 
Flora, it being considered that more lasting 
preservation would follow public interest in 
wdld life, and they point out what is being 
done in America and England under semi- 
commercialised control of Fauna and Flora. 
Others contend that the Crown is not doing 
enough, and consider the time is ripe for 
Private Trusts to secure Reserves and the 
like and to control Fauna and Flora policy. 
Others, and probably the majority of nature 
lovers, are of the opinion that the Fauna and 
flora of a country belongs to the community 
and should therefore be under the control of 
the Crown. 
While we argue on policy, opportunities 
\o secure original virginal land for Reserves 
are being lost, for, through development of 
our land for agricultural and pastoral pur- 
suits, the natural scrub and forest is rapidly 
disappearing. It therefore is most essential 
to get together and act, not talk, before it 
is too late. 
With the help of scientific research, much 
of our scrub land, once considered useless 
for other than poor grazing, is now being 
brought into production. In the course of 
development the scrub is destroyed. Much 
reclamation of swamp and swampy areas is 
taking place, and it will result in the water- 
birds, as the ibis, spoonbill, etc., being 
driven away. 
The conservation of our soils is in some 
measure closely connected with the preserva- 
tion of Fauna and Flora. It has long been 
realised that much of the depletion and 
erosion of our soils has been due to the 
excessive removal of vegetable cover. On 
a large percentage of our land, it being of 
a friable, sandy nature, timber and scrub 
is essential to protect it from the force of 
wind and water. In an effort to meet the 
position and to prevent the wholesale destruc- 
tion of scrub and forest, the State Land Board, 
of which the writer was then Chairman, some 
years ago recommended that an area equal 
to one-tenth of the area of the block should 
be reserved in any new lease issued after 
that date. The Crown approved of this 
recommendation and it became law. In 
practice the block is examined, and where 
possible an area equal to 10% of the acreage 
of the block, embracing any existing scrub 
or timber is selected and reserved to the 
Crown. In some cases, wdiere the block has 
recently been cleared and there is a danger 
of soil erosion, 10% of the cleared land is 
reserved to allow regeneration of the scrub. 
These small reserves of scrub and/or forest 
