SOMETHING LIKE NEW ZEALAND.

Forest and Bird, Issue 18, 1 August 1929, Page 11

SOMETHING LIKE NEW ZEALAND.

Museums could be made centres for the dissemination of knowledge on the subject by regular lectures to the schools within an area mapped out; and by press writings. Not nearly enough use is made of the museums of the country to further economic natural history. Systematic classifications and maintenance of huge collections of insects and other creatures, or writing papers on the variation of . the hind legs of a beetle are, no doubt of use and interest to science; but our country is young, and a huge amount of spade work of a practical nature is necessary, and there are not enough trained men for the job. We have an enormous ignorant population of black people, and a goodly army of equally ill-informed Europeans, and we must try and educate them out of the habit of wilful and wanton destruction of our friends and allies in the lower animal world whose services are so sorely needed in our fight against noxious insects which take so heavy a toll of the products of our industry. Ownerless cats are a fearful scourge to wild bird life, and -even the best cared for cats are very destructive in this respect. Eats also take a very heavy toll of birds. ' ! No garden is complete without its bird fountain or bath. Insects have hosts of enemies- other than our feather allies, but if we exterminated the native birds, the human population of South Africa would, in a few years, be reduced to a condition of starvation. — (Professor F. W, • Fitzsimons, Port Elizabeth Museum, South Africa.)