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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

TRIT CO. 885

22 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TQ

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Certain areas in Bunyoro and Toro have been declared game reserves, within which no game may be hunted, killed, or captured without a special licence from the Governor.

A game register must be kept by each licence holder, which must be submitted, together with a copy, not less frequently than once in three months to the nearest district officer, who will countersign the entries up to date, and retain the copy.

An export duty of 15 per cent. ad valorem is levied on all ivory exported from the Protectorate, but sportsmen's trophies killed under a game licence, in the shape of hides and skins, rhinoceros horns, and hippopotamus's teeth are exempt from export duty on production of the necessary certificate from a district officer.

Residents' and visitors' licences are in force for one year from the date of issue, and are not transferable. The applicant for a licence may be required, should the Government deem it necessary, to give security by bond or deposit not exceeding Rs. 2,000 (£133 6s. 8d.) for compliance with the Game Ordinance. The Government has the power to revoke a licence for any breach or connivance in a breach of the Game Ordinance. Licences do not entitle the holder to trespass or hunt over any private property without the consent of the owner or occupier of that property. Persons in the employment of licence holders may, without licences, assist holders of licences in hunting animals, but shall not use firearms.

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There are firms in Uganda who are prepared to supply every requisite for caravan life, and undertake the engagement of porters. trackers, &c., and the general management of hunting expeditions.

1st May, 1914.

18360

ŞIR,

(No. 111.)

No. 76.

NYASALAND.

THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE. (Received 19th May, 1914.)

[Copy to Tropical Diseases Bureau, 5 June, 1914. L.F.]

[Answered by No. 78.]

Government House, Zomba,

Nyasaland Protectorate, 16th April, 1914. WITH reference to your despatch, No. 34, of the 4th of February last,* and connected correspondence touching the destruction of the wild fauna as a means of exterminating the tsetse fly, and thereby sleeping sickness, I have the honour to enclose, for your information, a copy of correspondence which has passed recently with the Blantyre Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture on the subject of the free shooting of game, together with a report by the Assistant Resident at Ngara on the experiment in free shooting carried out in part of the Marimba District.

Enclosure 1 in No. 76.

I have, &c..

G. SMITH,

Governor.

The SECRETARY, THE NYASALAND CHAMBER OF AGRICULTURE AND COMMERCE, Blantyre, to HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR, Zomba. SIR,

27th November, 1913.

I BEG to inform you that at a recent meeting of my Committee I was instructed to forward you the undermentioned motion with the request that you will be kind enough to give same your careful consideration.

The motion is as follows:-

"That this Committee of the Nyasaland Chamber of Agriculture and Commerce view with grave apprehension the notice in the Gazette of the 31st

* L.F. transmitting copies of Nos. 69 and 70.

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October, 1913, declaring four new districts to be under certain rules made ander The Epidemic and Contagious Diseases Ordinance, 1903,' and 'Sleep- ing Sickness Rules, 1913,' as proved to be infected with sleeping sickness. The Committee draw the attention of the Government to the paper read by Dr. Yorke at a meeting of the African Society in London in June, 1913, and published in the Quarterly Journal of that Society, and further, the Com- mittee would draw Government's attention to the statement made by His Majesty's Colonial Secretary that Government would not fail to act as soon as facts were forthcoming, proving a connection between game and tsetse. This Committee is strongly of the opinion that, in view of the near approach of the infection to the commercial centres of Zomba and Blantyre, the time has come when drastic action should be taken to prevent the danger of the further spread of the disease by the migration of infected game into these and neigh- bouring districts, and the Committee would be glad to learn what steps Government propose to take to deal with this serious situation.'

I beg, &c.,

J. W. STRATTON,

Secretary.

Enclosure 2 in No. 76.

The ACTING SECRETARY TO THE ADMINISTRATION, Zomba, to the SECRETARY, THE NYASALAND CHAMBER OF AGRICULTURE and COMMERCE, Blantyre.

SIR,

10th December, 1913.

I AM directed by the Governor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 27th ultimo communicating a motion respecting sleeping sickness adopted by your Committee at a recent meeting.

2. I am to explain that Government Notices, Nos. 233 and 234, published in the Gazette of the 31st of October, are intended to extend the powers of Medical Officers engaged on the sleeping sickness enquiry and to facilitate their work. It is true that a case of infection of this disease has been found at Mpimbi, on the Shire River, but the fact gives rise to no cause for alarm or for considering that the situation has assumed a more serious aspect than has existed in the Protectorate for many years past. In the course of six years, from 1906-07, the greater part of the Protectorate west of and immediately south of the lake, carrying a population of upwards of half a million persons, has been examined by the Government Medical Officers, and up to date only 163 cases of infection have been discovered, the bulk of these being located in the proclaimed area near Domira Bay. These figures do not compare unfavourably with the incidence of other serious diseases in the Protectorate, and your Committee will recognise, His Excellency feels sure, that sleeping sickness is, in its character, endemic rather than epidemic.

3. Your Committee expresses the opinion that the time has come when the Government should take serious and drastic measures to prevent the spread of the disease, and it is suggested that such action should be directed against the wild fauna of the country. You are doubtless aware that a large and representative Committee has been recently appointed in England by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to examine and advise on this question, and until this body has completed its deliberations it is not probable that Mr. Harcourt will feel himself in a position to determine whether any, and, if so, what, action shall be taken for exterminating or otherwise dealing with the wild fauna and other animals.

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Your Committee is also aware that Sir David Bruce's Commission is pursu- ing its investigations in the Protectorate, that a distinguished entomologist has been appointed to study the bionomics of the tsetse fly, and that the laboratories of Europe are engaged on the therapeutic aspect of the matter. All is being done that is possible in the way of scientific research on which executive action must ultimately depend. In the meantime, and until further enlightenment is forthcoming as to the etiology and treatment of the disease, the Government of the Protectorate is, through its Medical Officers, taking such prophylactic measures as the means at its disposal render possible.

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