PLAGUE OF ELEPHANTS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 267, 4 August 1908, Page 8

PLAGUE OF ELEPHANTS.

FIVE TUSKERS SHOT IN. TWO MINUTES. A few. months ago the London "Daily Nows:". published an account of the ravages by wild : elephants in Rhodesia. The elephants, are peculiarly vicious, and owing to the. operation of extremely stringent game laws their numbers have increased to a formidable extent. So unsafe has the locality become !that the farms, were becoming depopulated, settlers and prospectors give it a wide berth, arid tho natives are terrorised because of-several men'being killed and crops destroyed, especially in-the district of Lomag'uridi. A missionary, tho Rev. W. T. Grantham, made repeated appeals-to the South African Government for some relaxation of the game law's,'and now the announcement is offcially .made that "His Honour the Administrator 'authorises the destruction of elephants in tho Lomagundi district." Writing home to Lancaster, Mr. Grantham speaks of tho influx of "big game" sportsmen into the district, and describes.an experience of three Dutchmen while elephant shooting. " At'D a.m. they came on a troop of seven olephants and killed one bulL They followed on the spoor of tho others, and at 2.30 came up'.with' them about seven' miles east of my station. By this time other elephants had joined up, arid tlioy numbered about 18." The hunters fired, and a ■bull dropped..;': " Tho remaining elephants spread themselves out arid completely surrounded tho men on a small ant heap. To run away was impossible, so they sat tight, kept their nerve, and , shot straight, with the result that in two minutes they had killed four elephants within a radius of from 20 to 50 yards.. The others then made off, five having been killed, and all of them tuskers. I wont out to tho scene of tho fray, and an interesting sight: it was: hundreds of natives, male and female,'had congregated there, and by noon next day dozens of fires wero drying tons of flesh."