THE URGE OF THE PAST.

Forest and Bird, Issue 24, 1 July 1931, Page 2

THE URGE OF THE PAST.

(By J. Pattison, R.A.0.U.)

Man and the domesticated animals of to-day retain many tendencies that belong to or are inherited from ancestors of the long, long ago. Domesticated animals have come from wild animals, and man himself was once a wild animal. Both demonstrate the survival of savage instincts and tendencies which were helpful in the dim and distant past.

When we see the domesticated dog turn round and round on the hearth rug preparatory to lying down, we see him reproducing a useless process, one which is without utility to-day, but which was useful to his primordial ancestors when they wished to make a comfortable bed among tall prairie grass or reeds. Similarly, the domesticated cow wears daggers on her head which are of no use whatever to her to-day, but rather a disability under her altered environment, but were useful to her wild ancestors in defending themselves and calves from the attacks of wolves, dogs, tigers and all the larger carnivora. Mankind also shows savage survivals which, no doubt, were helpful in the long ago, but to-day are regarded as useless, atavistic and immoral. Stealing, cheating, revenge, lying and the desire for war and the killing of every living thing were necessary in the eons behind us.

The primordial man was possessed of crude weapons, and had a continual struggle against nature in procuring his food. Hunting birds and animals became an instinct with him. This long continued practice survived down to very recent times; that being so, one can understand how difficult it is for man to cast it off. It is this urge of the past that causes men such as Zane Grey, Captain Mitchell, and many of the wealthy men of England and New Zealand, to take pleasure in the killing of Swordfish and Mako, and other sharks in the Northern waters. It is this savage survival which impels anglers to kill fish in our lakes and rivers, and gunmen to shoot both native and imported birds. No consideration is shown to the animals, fishes, or birds by those who desire to slay for pleasure. When we read of those of high and low degree going out to shoot duck, quail, swans, pheasants, and other beautiful birds, just for the joy of destroying, we can certainly regard the advance of civilization as being very tardy, and that of altruism as exceedingly slow.

The gun clubs are at times given permits in our fair Dominion to shoot shags and hawks. . I protest against this permission, seeing that both hawks and cormorants are part and parcel of. the whole purpose of nature, and when man interferes for selfish and commercial reasons, the balance is destroyed and untold disasters follow. Birds of all kinds, whether of the water, wood, or waste, were more plentiful in New Zealand when hawks were numerous —that is fifty or sixty years ago.

Hawks are extremely useful; they kill rats, mice, and the young of introduced stoats, weasels and ferrets, thereby helpingnature to achieve its equilibrium. Shags destroy weak and diseased fish; they also keep our streams free from fungus and eat crabs, crayfish, young eels and small trout. In most of the streams that have come under, my observation, where cormorants are plentiful trout are also plentiful, and are moreover bigger and in better condition.

The instinct of sympathy in the higher peoples appears to be much weaker than many of the primeval instincts—for instance, the hunting and fighting instincts. Charles Darwin says: “Sympathy beyond the bonds of man, that is humanity, to the other animals seems to be the one of the latest acquisitions. The very idea of humanity to animals, one of the noblest with which man is endowed, seems to, arise from our sympathies becoming more tender, and more widely diffused, until they are extended to all sentient beings. As soon as this virtue is practised and honoured by a few it spreads, through example and instruction, to the young, and eventually becomes incorporated in public opinion.”

Surely there is something nobler in life than the wounding and killing of defenceless birds and beasts. Cannot these alleged “sportsmen,” anglers and shooters achieve fame in some better and nobler way? Ethically, I have always understood that man’s mission in life is to eradicate suffering and pain, both from the animal and human kingdoms. Imagine a man’s sole objective in life being the purpose of seeing how many beautiful living things he can destroy or maim! Some of the men and women that are part of human society are very proud of this primordial urge to slay, so much so that they have themselves photographed along with the defenceless creatures that they have destroyed, and have the pictures appear in the illustrated papers and magazines, thus proclaiming to the world their vanity and their primordial lust to kill and destroy.

It has been said that civilization is a train. It drags along with it a great many things that rightfully belong to the past—-

not only vestigial instincts, but also vestigial customs, beliefs and institutions. The gladiatorial contests of ancient Rome, the bearbaiting of four centuries ago, the cock-fighting of fifty years ago, have passed away on account of the growth of human sympathy. In America, and in many countries, pigeon and live bird trap shooting stands condemned, and Continental bull-fighting is decaying. Let us hope the shooting of birds and the taking of our big game fish, for the sole purpose of giving pleasure, will shortly give way to a public humanitarian spirit that will condemn any practice or sport that entails suffering to the lower animals. In the words of Howard Moore “It is of vast advantage to us to be able to recognise these vestigial features in order that we may more skilfully disentangle ourselvs from them, and, at the same time definitely turn our backs on them in our efforts to advance to a better world.”