CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 209, 13 December 1910, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

A WORD ABOUT KANGAROOS. The news that the Australian wallaroo (the big black or <lark brown kangaroo) is to be absolutely protected, is of interest to anyone who has watched the insane desire of the people of most new lands to wipe out everything indigenous to them. Newi Zealand ranks second to none in this extraordinary love for slaying everything that is a native to the country, and it is interesting to observe that the Government is, by pictorial illustrations of New Zealand bird life, trying to get the small boy to allow something to live. Australian kangaroos are, to use a common phrase, "out on their own." They are a mysterious and unexplained link with the past, and because they are good "sport," and also because they eat grass, they have been ruthlessly slain m myriads. When kangaroos were plentiful, the methods used for decimating them were hardly "sporting." Horse-, men would round up huge mobs with stockwhips, driving them'into (high yards specially constructed for their reception. The gentle stockmen used then to wade in with big sticks and wipe them out. At that time no market had been found for kangaroo skins or the sinews which are now used in surgical work or the great tails that are sold to-day in London for one or two guineas to make soup with. Kangaroo and wallaby drives were common features of station life in Australia up to a few years ago. Everybody within fifty miles gathered for these great occasions, and the paddocks—not" the ten-acre sort—were "driven" by long lines of horsemen with whips, rattles, whistles and voices, so that every "roo" spurted in the one direction. The shooters were ranged along the far fence, and shot them down as they arrived. The "sport" was almost as sporting as that induwgest in by Royal shootists, who are led to the place where the tome stags are feeding in order that society writers may tell tine world what marvellous dexterity his Majesty possessed. Mostly, the slain were left to rot in the paddocks until the time came when local bodies offered "scalp money" and every man and boy became the sworn enemy of this relic of a prehistoric age. American discovered that the kangaroo was commercially useful, so that instead of getting twopence for a scalp, the hunter found the skin was .worth a few shillings. The war has waged until, except in the most remote regions, the kangaroo is as scarce as the blackfellow or the emu. If the Australian wants to kill out the •wallaroo or any other kind of marsupial that is an annoyance to him because it isn't imported, he will do so despite any "close" season, because it is impossible to police the back country. It is as reasonable to enforce a "close season", law in Australia as it would be to try to shut out the light of the sun with a bit of buttercloth. In some districts the rabbit has distracted the attention of the slayer from the kangaroo, and as he is about a thousand times more proline than the "roo," and infinitely more ruinous—for he burrows —he is worthy of the attention of the people. Isolated persons in Australia have been impressed with the value of the kangaroo, and are in some cases breeding him, but mostly the Australian, like his cousin the New Zealander, is fully determined to wipe out every vestige of individualty from the country. The prevailing idea is to make Australia and New Zealand look as unlike the Commonwealth and the Dominion as possible.

AN ENVOY FROM URUGUAY. Signor Monetro Bustamente, who has taken up his duties in Wellington as Consul for Uruguay, believes that his country will be benefited considerably from its closer connection with New Zealand. Up to the present time the Dominion has had only the slender interest in the South American republic created by the direct steamers calling at Monte Video on their way to London, but it is hoped that the relations between the two countries will now become more intimate. Signor Bustamente stated to a representative of the Dominion recently that he purposed not only to foster commercial ties, but also to furnish information of progress and development in New Zealand to the people of his own country. "I have come here," he remarked, "not so much to develop commerce as to study the working methods in agriculture and the breeding of live stock; of which we still have something to learn." Signor Bustamente has come to a strange land, but to people who will be not entirely strangers to him, as the British interests in Uruguay are considerable, and there is a large British "colony" in Monte Video. Moreover, there are many points of similarity between the Dominion and his own country, which has made rapid progress since it,was emancipated from the troubles and disorders of civil war. The Consul was able to tell the interviewer that the conditions of the working people in Uruguay are excellent. There is a special department controlling a labor bureau, which takes charge of the organisation of labor and safeguards the interests of the workers. The country requires a great number of workers, and the agricultural and pastoral industries, which are very extensive, offer a good field for immigrants. Recent statistics show that the republic possesses 30,0(10,000 head of live stock, and Signor Bustamente hopes to secure in New Zealand means of assisting his countrymen to improve the quality of their herds.