MASSACRE OF BIRDS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2840, 19 August 1908, Page 61

MASSACRE OF BIRDS.

COMMONWEALTH ACTION. • APPEAL TO WOMEN. A powerful deputation, representing all the ornithologists' societies in Australia, waited upon the Prime Mini6tei (Mr Deakin) on August 2 to urge that the Commen wealth should take action to pre-. vent the destruction of Australian bircls. Profccsor Baldwin Spencer said that action had bc-cn taken in the United States. The State of New York had forbidden the importation of bird skins and plumage. Tne best action that tho Common wealth could take would be to prohibit the exportation of bird plumes and skins. j.vlr A. J. Campbell, vice-president of the Australasian Ornithologists' Union, said chat the president (Mr La Soeuf) was too ill to be present. Und-er^ecfcion 52 of the Customs Act it needed only a proclamation to prohibit th© importation of skins and plumes. There might .be some trouble about prohibiting the exportation, but they trusted that the Prime Minister would devise some means of doing it. r **" B " honorary secretary of the union, said that the deputation* .request applied to Papua and Australia. They wanted to check the wanton deetruc-; tion of some of the most useful Australian > birds, that were slaughtered principally to ■ form millinery for ladltea. At an .auction. 6ale held in London there wore catalogued 28,600 skins of birds of Paradise, the neating plumes of thousands of egrets, an immense number of ordinary plumed birds, a large number of lyre birds' tails, opestedl pigeons, and kingfishers. The London sates accounted for 20,000 kingfishers alone,and this took no account of private sales or sales in other parts of the world. Australian birds possessed the fatal gift of beautiful plumes, and were ruthlessly, slaughtered. Surgeon-general Williams, representing the New .South Wales societies, said that he - was am observer -of the herons to which the egrets belonged. He knew them to be of the greatest practical value to squatters, farmers, and all who had to do with tho conservation of water. Mr E. B. Nicholls. of the Bird Observers' Club, said that 200,000 ibis nested together in one district. On examination of the stomach of one 2400 immature grasshoppers and a number of snails were found in it. That meant that one colony of ibis were responsible • for the destruction of 480 million grasshoppers. Mr F. R. Godfrey said he had been told of hundreds of blue wrens being seen in one box in one shop. It was terrible that this destruction should , be allowed to tw» on. He noticed a distinct lessening in the bird life in the country. ' . Mr Keartland, of the Field Naturalists'Club, said that one State was played ofi* igainst another. In Melbourne it was saidlthat lyre birds' tails were got in New South Wales, while in Sydney it was .said' they wer-e obtained in Victoria. Thus the. jame laws of both States were defeated. Che Federal Government should take action which would do away with this difficulty. Mr Deakin, in reply, said that the. depu:alion was the most representative of this ■ jharaoter which had ever put forward its news in Australia. They devoted them:elves of their own choice and taste, it was ■rue, to pursuits which had an enormous jconomic value to this country. He was luite confident from his own reading and! general knowledge that the statements they iad made as to the value of bird life to" he Commonwealth were accurate, and by leslroying certain forms of that bird life. jithea 1 intentionally or more or less acoilenfcally, they w©re disturbing the balance >l Nature, for which they must pay a leavy debt. — ("Hear, hear.") t The question ouched upon humanitarianiam, if that word >ould be applied to birds, and some of the peakere seemed fco have a greater / jith n the Commonwealth Government fch^n a :nowledgo of the Commonwealth Consti'tu- " ion. — (Laughter.) Ifc was not in the Comnonwealfch's power to legislate in regard o the animal or bird life of this country, 0 that the law should operate in all the Jtafces. He 'believed that if they would re>eat their request to the State Governnents those Governments would re-enforce he existing laws co as to prevent the masacre of lyre-birds, to which allusion had! ►een made. Another sex had a controlling; lower in this matter far greater than the ikraimonwealth and States combined. Ifi hat womanly pity were only directed to he matter, they would have accomplished! he whole of what they had in view. Ifl Uvstralian women were active in that reard they would achieve- in Australia afc •nee what the Government could not do. or many years to come. In June last he ad found that of the two powers which, lie Commonwealth Government might exeriee they had at present only the minor ower of prohibiting importation. He had! sked the Minister of Customs to draft a y-law prohibiting the importation of birds' hime3 and ekins. The great power was ontrol of exportations. He had aaked tho linister of Customs to prepare a bill giyig the Commonwealth that power. This ill would be brought forward before the nd of the year. In tha meantime he had ist month communicated with the various tates invibing the Governmenfs Io prevent lie ruthless destruction of these beautiful 1 irds. New South, Wales and Victoria aplied that they would give the matter Mieideration. South Australia said that ie provisions of the existing law would be a forced. Tasmania also referred to the Protection Act. From Queensland! nd Western Australia he load received no jpliee. He had very little doubt that if leir association put itself in touch wifchi i-e State Governments it would find a jady response. In reply to the inquiry om Lord Avebury's committee, he had i-bled to London that they had no objecon to th-e bill which the committee proosed to introduce. To date tlie Common, ■ealth had done all that it was possible to y—(" Hear, hear."),— and they would ask) >r larger powers before the year olosed. 1 Papua in 1904 they had prohibited, toepfc under special permit, the .killing of irds of paradise. That was suspended rr one year, which ended in April last, he suspension covered only a small area, o authority had been given for anjt [tension of that suspension, and at present ;sy,ruotion of birds in Papua' was proibited.

A bag shot was fired at a quarry, Shell Harbour, New South Wales, roa-iitiv. Thero were 12 drilled holes, oaoh 35ft <j<-ep and 17ft apart. These were charged with, half a ton of rackarock. The charges' wer« fired by «Lectricity, and 30,000 tous <A feaealt were dislodged