The Uganda Government has long been subject to much adverse criticism for its apparent reluctance to fulfil its share of the obligations towards wild life which were agreed upon by Great Britain in 1933, at the international conference held in London for the better protection of the African fauna. The world however was then in the throes of a disastrous financial depression, from which recovery was slow, and it was scarcely the time for the small Uganda Protectorate, with its limited resources, to embark on a costly scheme for creating national parks. Moreover, ever since the proclamation of the Protectorate in 1894 Uganda has suffered more severely from rinderpest, that terrible scourge of cattle, than any other British territory in Africa. The direct loss in livestock has been appalling, but the indirect loss, which can be assessed as the measure of the preventive effort on the part of the Veterinary Department, has been positively staggering. Rinderpest has for long been endemic in the regions of Ethiopia to the north-east and never a year has passed without the dread disease appearing on Uganda's northern and eastern frontiers. The wild ungulates introduced, harboured and transmitted the disease—the cattle could be controlled, not so the wild animals except possibly by the repugnant method of destruction. Outside the limits of Uganda few have realized the grim and costly struggle which continued relentlessly year by year, and still fewer have ever appreciated that little Uganda with its gallant band of veterinary workers has again and again staved off disaster from reaching the territories lying to the south and south-west. Rinderpest was no respecter of game reserves in which the disease-stricken ungulates suffered as heavily as anywhere else and therefore there were economic factors of considerable gravity involved in the question of alienation of relatively large areas as national parks. It seemed preferable and wiser to endeavour to free Uganda from the ravages of rinderpest, before setting aside as national parks areas which could function as reservoirs of the disease.

The boundaries of the first two national parks in Uganda were approved by the Legislative Council on the 17th July, 1952. Two areas, parts of game reserves already in existence, were chosen.

The evidence for the existence of a large marsupial “tigercat” in Queensland, Australia, is meagre, and this, together with an absence of tangible relics, makes for a lack of credence. On the other hand, one may go further and suggest that even this little evidence has been accorded an unjustified obscurity. There is, therefore, this much excuse for returning to it, if only to bring the few fragments together for those who may wish to reflect on them.

From information gathered from officers who had fought with the partisans in Crete in the last war and others it had become clear that the agrimi, or wild goat of Crete, Capra hircus œgarus, was in danger of extinction.

In Oryx, Vol. I, No. 3, the translation was published of an article by Heinz Heck entitled “The Breeding-back of the Aurochs”. In this Herr Heck described his experiments in resurrecting the aurochs, the wild ancestor of all present-day breeds of European cattle which became extinct over 300 years ago. The method used he calls “breeding-back” in which the aim is to direct the race back to a common ancestor. From skeletal remains and contemporary descriptions and paintings it was known what the aurochs looked like: a large neat, the bulls black with a broad yellowish-white stripe down the back and the cows red-brown; both sexes had white colouring round the muzzle and long, strong, curved, pale horns with black tips.

In spite of the considerable economic development of the last twenty-five years, and hence the occupation and “miseen-valeur” of large formerly unexplored areas and the intensification of motor car traffic in consequence of the opening of new roads, Angola is still a country with plenty of game. Game abounds especially in the southern part with its extended savannas. Certain areas, still little explored and thus still undisturbed along the Rivers Cunene and Cubango (Okavango), for instance, are known as exceptionally rich in game.

For very many years the areas west of the railway line comprising Kibwezi, Makindu, Kiboko and Simba have been the mecca for numbers of the native poaching fraternity. A change exists. Now that game preservation has been strictly enforced, these skilled Wakamba hunters and experts in the use of bow and poisoned arrow have taken badly to existing conditions. Game animals ranging from elephant to dikdik in the past went through bad times in a grim endeavour to survive. Their drinking places during periods of excessive drought had their quota of poachers' hides, either hollowed out in mother earth or built on adjacent trees. Twang of bowstring had brought about in the minds of wild creatures a note inherited, conveying fear and alarm. Nothing on four legs was spared—females and young—easy food.

Progress in the development of the Park is very satisfactory. The quantity and tameness of the animals in the southern section justifies the decision to open this section to the public, with limited facilities, for the 1953 Rhodes Centenary Exhibition. Numbers of all the local species of antelope, with buffalo and zebra, were seen without difficulty from July onwards till the rains broke. The game is definitely responding to the care taken for its preservation.

It is sad to have to report that the game in Southern Rhodesia is fast disappearing and if the Government's present policy continues for much longer, it will be exterminated except in a few areas. In the past, this has happened in the Union of South Africa and now it is to repeat itself north of the Limpopo.

For over a quarter of a century the Royal Entomological Society of London has been greatly concerned to ensure the existence of rare indigenous insects, whose continuance in this country appeared to be threatened. Originally, the Protection Committee set up by the Society was concerned mainly with the activities of certain unscrupulous collectors, which were actually threatening the very existence of beautiful and interesting species. This danger has now been very largely overcome, but in its place has sprung up a new threat, arising from modern agricultural practices, the heavy programmes of forestry, the development of housing estates, and in certain cases the activities of local authorities.

At the suggestion of the National Parks Association of the United States and on the invitation of the National Parks Service, I was privileged, as representing your Society, to visit two of America's most beautiful national parks, Olympic and Mount Rainier. They are both situated in Washington State, known as the Evergreen State, in the north-west of the U.S.A. They consist of rain forests, colossal cedars, firs, and snowcapped mountains.

There are essences in human life which defy analysis. Who can measure the influence upon the human spirit of an inspiring passage of music or of a radiant line of poetry or prose ? The inner being of man is forever something apart from utilitarian or material influences. The story of Christ going into the wilderness has been accepted through the ages not merely as a symbol but as an essential episode in the personality of an individual. “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help” is a prayer flowing naturally from the human heart that senses the oneness of the individual and the natural world.