42
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
गय
C.O.
Reference :-
885/25
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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(In practice it is probable that the Inspector and Medical Officer can relieve and assist each other, provided the Medical Officer possesses some entomological training and the Inspector some knowledge of the epidemiology and pathology of sleeping sickness.)
(d) Cattle Quarantine. The requirements for this phase of the work must be estimated by the Chief Veterinary Officer, Uganda. Whether or not an additional Veterinary Officer will be necessary, transportation facili- ties must be provided.
(e) Scientific Research. The experimental work to ascertain the true affinities of the trypanosome above mentioned can be done by the It will Bacteriologist (Dr. Duke), in addition to his regular duties.
a suitable require the establishment of a small camp laboratory on island where the trypanosome strains from both fly and antelope can readily be obtained. An adequate supply of monkeys will be necessary at the camp, and every effort must be made to obtain chimpanzees from Bunyoro in which to test the pathogenicity of the trypanosomes. Again, transportation facilities are absolutely requisite.
(f) Transportation.-A power launch, preferably steam, and large enough to transport two European officers with full camp equipment to and from points one hundred to one hundred and fifty miles apart, is an absolute necessity. Unless it can be provided the whole undertaking
would better be abandoned.
(This craft should be assigned to the Medical Department to have first claim upon it, and to reveive credit when it is used by administra- tive and other officers.)
W. F. FISKE.
24, Marloes Road,
Kensington, W.
35431
No. 43.
GERMAN EAST AFRICA.
THE ACTING ADMINISTRATOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
(No. 85.)
54632
(No. 303.)
MY LORD,
(Received 14th June, 1919.)
Government House, Dar-es-Salaam, 29th April, 1919. [Printed as No. 141 in African No. 1061.]
No. 44.
NYASALAND.
THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE. (Received 22nd September, 1919.)
[Answered by Nos. 48 and 50.]
Government House, Zomba, Nyasaland, 18th August, 1919. WITH reference to the sleeping sickness report issued in May, 1914 (Cd. 7349), and correspondence which ensued, as a result of which a free shooting area was proclaimed in May, 1915 (Nyasaland Gazette of 31st May, 1915), in a large portion of the Ngara Sub-District, I now have the honour to enclose a report by the Assistant Resident at Ngara, detailing the result, from 1st June, 1915, to 31st March, 1919, of the abolition of game licences for shooting within this area, together with a schedule* of game shot within the said area.
* Not printed.
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2. This report conclusively shows, as has been increasingly apparent each year since the area was proclaimed, that the experiment has failed to serve any really useful purpose either in the reduction of game or fly, and has only resulted in attracting the casual and professional hunter to a spot where game can be shot without payment of a licence and without any restriction in numbers. While this is the position I do not propose to close this area to free shooting until I have received an expression of Your Lordship's wishes in the matter.
Enclosure in No. 44.
I have, &c.,
G. SMITH,
Governor.
THE free-shooting area was thrown open by Proclamation in July, 1915; as stated at the time of the opening, the object of the experiment was twofold, i.e., to determine (1) how far the abolition of licences can be depended upon to reduce the number of game in any given area; (2) how far such a reduction of game will produce a corresponding reduction of tsetse fly.
I can state with confidence at the outset that the success of the experiment has been very partial. u the south-west part of the area, i.e., on the upper Rusa and Livelezi rivers, the game have become apparently scarcer, according to reports received at various times from sportsmen. There can be no doubt that the animals have become wilder and consequently harder to obtain, and have also been driven away temporarily from some of their former haunts; that there has been any serious permanent reduction of their numbers is very difficult of proof, and is certainly open to doubt. Speaking from personal experience, I have found abundant tracks of all the commoner game beasts along the south boundary of the area during the past few months. About the rest of the area there can be no doubt at all; elephants are the only species which have been reduced in numbers or driven out to any appreciable extent. As late as September, 1918, I have had convincing evidence that practically all the varieties of big game known in this district have been found in great numbers on the Lingadzi and Dwangwa rivers. Anything approach- ing extermination of any species has certainly not been effected. In March, 1917, a report was received from a sportsman who had spent a considerable time shooting in the area; this report states that puku had been exterminated. On 3rd December, 1918, I saw a considerable herd of these antelope and found the fresh tracks of many more. Judging from their usual habitat and confiding nature it was to be expected that puku (cobus vardoni) would be the first species to be exterminated: that this is not the case I can provide ocular proof at any time.
The question of the reduction of tsetse fly is a difficult one. I have personally observed them at various places near the Rusa, beginning as far east as the imme- diate neighbourhood of the Lisandwa dambo, and I have received information, for the accuracy of which I can vouch, that they have been found in September, 1918, near the Dwangwa, on the main road to Mzimba, where they were also noticed in 1914. The area covered by a fly belt differs to so great an extent, according to the time of year and the nature of the season, that it would be extremely rash to assert with confidence that the fly were definitely spreading, unless very accurate observa- tions had been constantly made in the same localities for a period of at least three years. For this reason am unable to form any definite opinion as to whether fly have increased or been reduced in numbers since the inception of the free-shooting experiment. That the fly are still there in all the places in which they were to be found in 1907 I can positively assert.
With regard to native participation in the experiment it would appear that there has been the same apathy as was experienced in the earlier attempt in 1911-13. The total head of game killed in the area to date is put at 2,107; of these it was estimated that 300-400 have been killed by natives. From my experience of the former free-shooting area I should consider this to be a liberal estimate. Unless the whole native population is to be armed with rifles for the purpose (a quite unthinkable proposition) it is certain that no more will be done by the natives: they will not, nowadays, take the trouble to hunt game by their own methods and with their own weapons.
Of the total head of game killed under permit to date, the distribution accord- ing to financial years is as follows:--
F
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