BIG GAME HUNTING

Southland Times, Issue 21089, 22 May 1930, Page 13

BIG GAME HUNTING

SPORT IN AFRICA. ELEPHANTS PLENTIFUL. Do elephants go .somewhere to die? The answer is definitely in the negative, according to Mr Temple Perkins, District Commissioner in Uganda, who is at present in Wellington, his home town, on furlough. Addressing the Wellington Rotary Club recently, Mr Perkins said people often asked'whether there were elephant ceinetries. The answer was definitely, no. Elephants died either where they stood or they went as near as possible to water or into it. “Ronco found three elephants lying side by side, sleeping,” said Mr Perkins. “I shot them.” Two of them were skeletons in the morning. The other was stolen. There was nothing left of the tusks at down next morning. I actually went out of my way to prove that there was no such thing as elephant cemeteries.” Man-Eating Lions. Mr Perkins said he had a lot of experience of man-eating lions. One year in three weeks 51 people were taken. It happened that on that particular occasion many natives were wandering about at night at the mercy of any wild beast that took a fancy to them.

Recalling some of his experiences, Mr Perkins said that one day he was sitting in his courthouse and when four o'clock came round he decided to adjourn. A boy came running into the court saying that the Prime Minister had four elephants destroying his crops. Mr Perkins changed his clothes and set out for the station, which was about seven miles away. At about a quarter to six in the evening his boy spotted the elephants in a river-bed, down a thirty-foot bank.. They presented a beautiful target.

“I went down and .shot the nearest one,” said Dr Perkins. “The others did not pay any attention at all. I shot another one. The other two disappeared. I thought that was good-bye to that, I reloaded my rifle and went to see if the animals were properly finished off. I walked past number one, and just up to the tail of number two, when I noticed one of its eyes flicker. I thought I had better polish him off. I was just about to pull the trigger when I heard a scream. My other two friends were returning. I took careful aim and fired, bringing one of them down. There were two elephants left and one bullet. I dived for a patch of grass. My boy, who was on the bank, saw my plight, and fired at one of the elephants which made off into the water. I then polished the other fellow off.” “Game Not Dying Out.” Mr Perkins added that game in Africa was dying out very slowly, if at all. He thought it would be found that the reserves were quite sufficient to accommodate all the animals required. In Uganda there were three enbrmous reserves. In his own district fifteen thousand square miles were entirely closed to human beings. He had ten years’ residence in Africa and had exceptional opportunities of studying game. The elephant was very —--valent in the north and west of Uganda. Six hundred elephants were killed a year, the. natural increase being estimated at not less than 1000. Elephants, therefore, were most plentiful. “You will notice that the Prince of Wales agrees with us that if is the best sport in the world,” concluded Mr Perkins.—The Dominion.