PROTECTION OF BIG GAME 
297 
fairly under its circumstance. The system is essentially 
unfair to game ; and, directly and indirectly, is respon¬ 
sible for the decimation of the Southern herds. I would 
earnestly urge that this “ riding-down ” of game be 
made illegal in our territories. Hitherto, the vice has 
barely made an appearance ; but it is wise to look ahead, 
and prevention will save cure. 
Personally (though this is, I fear, a counsel of per¬ 
fection) I would also prohibit the use of repeating-rifles 
on game. These are military weapons, and should be 
barred as unfair in the field of sport. 
A minor menace to game, ever recrudescent during 
periods of passing depression, is a tendency in disap¬ 
pointed settlers to grumble at its bare existence. 
Precisely why game should cease to exist when “ things 
are bad ” is not explained. That is merely an evidence 
of “ original sin ” in human nature. 
Here is a modern instance. But two or three years 
ago, the traveller-sportsman was received in East Africa 
with open arms, welcomed as a benefactor and a power; 
the newspapers rapturously applauded the coming of 
this or that Nimrod, recorded all his movements and 
exploits; he was, in short, received en prince —and 
charged as such! As a simple matter of fact, the 
traveller-sportsman was (and still remains) the best 
customer of the Colony ; while the game is still its best 
asset. 
But a change has come over the spirit of this dream. 
Our friends in East Africa have “ boomed ” overmuch ; 
their speculations were unduly sanguine, and they are 
passing through the consequent reaction—financial 
crises, lack of credit, and that sort of thing. Of course 
the fault cannot be theirs; a scapegoat must be found, 
and “ the game ” will serve the purpose. The local 
newspapers out there, which, a year before, brimmed over 
with praise of “the glorious game,” now sing in opposite 
key. They see (or pretend to see) a specific for the ills 
of over-speculation and faulty foresight, in the destruc¬ 
tion of the Colony’s one asset of present current value— 
