AN INSECT PROTECTORATE. And the " Small Bird Nuisance"

Free Lance, Volume III, Issue 107, 19 July 1902, Page 8

AN INSECT PROTECTORATE. And the " Small Bird Nuisance"

SOMEONE in authority seems to be fearful that "rubs, snails, locusts, and insect life generally, will become extinct if actne steps are not taken to prevent it. Therefore an Insect Protectorate, with headquarters at Parliament Buildings, and a staff who will see to the welfare of e\erythmg that creeps, has been set up. The Small Birds Nuisance Bill is the basis upon which the Protectorate will work. When that measure is passed into law the insect world may cheer up and banquet sumptuously on the hitherto protected regulation diet «■ ■*■ ■* Everyone will probably admit that the small imported bird is a wily little vagabond, and that when he has filled himself up with an insect course or two he looks for dessert. If he'd leave the "piece de resistance " alone, and be content with dessert only, his first course would do the damage for him. The crops got on very well before the übiquitous sparrow, starling, blackbird, and thrush "came out." _ They were only ordinarily grubby, blighted, worm or locust eaten. Since the advent of the " bird pest " the land under crop has probably doubled, and the insects, thankful for the spread of good things, increased and multiplied. All the birds named wage incessant warfare not only amongst insects, but amongst thenlarvae, and the countless myriads of unborn msects, if allowed to come to life, would counterbalance all the good the destruction of the birds could possibly effect. « * * There is hope for the birds in the tact that not all the eagle-eyed boys in New Zealand can exteiminate them. The relentless war that has been waged against the rabbit — a true pest, it you hke— has been all but fruitless. You see his little white tuft of tail bob up serenely wherever you go (when you haven't got a gun ' ), and after thenkind the small birds are at least a tenth as prolific, which is sufficient tor their purposes. As the Bill now stands, you will be liable to a fine not exceeding £10 if you allow a small bird's egg to be hatched within a radius of ten chains from your homestead. This means, of course, that the fledgling that struggles through your neighbour's fence and alights on your home paddock will cost you £10 if the Small Birds Inspector is about. He will be a man who can tell a Jones starling or a Smith sparrow or a Robinson blackbird on the wing, and he will be

mounted (li a liquid an motor, with Marconi telegraphic apparatus attached. There's no getting away from that No. 11 clause. It's a clincher. While you are ordering the atinc &- phere not to blow any ot the pollen of noxious weeds from the adjacent Crown lands, for which you may be fined, you will be conferring a benefit on mankind by requesting the fowls of the air to bring their vi-iting cards with them. It will simplify matters. The small boy won't go to school any more when he finds there's a penny a scalp hanging to a sparrow, and the truant inspector will need a hair restorer. The schoolmaster's roll a\erage -sull go down, and his decreased salary will make him wish he was an M.H.R., and the brightest intellects of the profession will take to gnm-diggmg. « * * If Parliament had nothing else to do this bird business would be a really pleasant little relaxation, but when the whole world has its eye fixed on what was thought was to be a record session it makes one feel that other things are being hedged to protect grubs. To the small birds of New Zealand who ha-\ c conscientiously filled their maws with surplus insect life, we would say, "Take heart," for in the remote future, when all wrongs shall be redressed, the sparrow will chirrup his little lay, and the thrush will chant his little matin, while his mate hatches out the family within the statutory ten chains of )oui homestead.