"PROTECTION OF NATIVE FAUNA.

    The announcement that the Ulimaroa will next week take from here two marsupial wolves - Tasmanian tigers - for the London Zoological Gardens and a brood of Tasmanian devils for the gardens at Melbourne again directs attention to the need of a sanctuary where the native fauna may shelter and be saved from that extinction which must otherwise be its fate.  So rare are marsupial wolves that few people have seen them, and there are probably not half-a-dozen in captivity the world over.  Yet little is done to protect them here and before many years have passed they may be as extinct as the dodo.  But for the practical scientific interest which Mrs. Roberts manifests in zoology it is doubtful whether so much would be known as is the case of Tasmania's rare animals, which, able to survive the attacks of their natural enemies, are being exterminated by the pot hunter and the new enemies and conditions which come in with settlement.  Close seasons are no great protection unless competent authority is at hand to see they are observed, and it is matter of common knowledge that protected birds are shot all the year round by so-called sportsmen who are happy so long as they can kill something.  It is very difficult to prevent this indiscriminate slaughter, and even when the plumage of a bird is retained for commercial purposes so much cunning is shown in disposing of it that it is next to impossible to get evidence that would lead to a conviction.  A plea was made in our open column on Saturday by "Boomerang" for the protection of the black swan, which are now on the Derwent near Bridgewater in considerable numbers.  The writer fears, and in truth he has much reason, that when duck shooting begins on 1st February those noble birds will be "potted" though they have no value and are often thrown away or left where they fall.  There is nothing to prevent this for the five months from the date mentioned are an open season for swan, but notwithstanding that something should be done to save them from the slaughter that will be inevitable when irresponsible men and youths, out for a day's shooting and indifferent what the game is, find them so handy and in such numbers.  In such a case sport too often degenerates into reckless killing. It has thus become a question whether a license should not be required before a man may shoot game, even in the open season, and as one has to be held for salmon and trout fishing there is both precedent and reason for the suggestion.  In many parts of Australia black swan are disappearing and waters on which they were once plentiful are now almost deserted. The same reason applies everywhere. Swan are shot down for the mere sake of shooting, and the surviving birds desert their old feeding and nesting places to seek sanctuary on remote rivers and lakes.  There are sportsmen of a class who see no reason why game should not be shot down whenever they can get within killing distance, and they would resort to swivel guns and the use of decoys did they dare do so.  These people are a curse in all places.  True sportsmen, however, are not to be feared for no matter how desirous they are of big bags - and what man out with the guns for a day is not - they do not shoot indiscriminately nor for the mere sake and lust of killing.  Still, these sportsmen are what their name implies and they have no interest, other than an assurance of good shooting and hunting from season to season, in the protection of the native fauna.  They do not trouble themselves about marsupial wolves or Tasmanian devils, or other animals whose value is mainly scientific, so long as the prospects are good for duck shooting on 1st February.  It thus becomes apparent that much has still to be done if the unique fauna of Tasmania is to be preserved, and that end can only be attained by the establishment of sanctuaries as strictly guarded as are those of New Zealand, which have been the means of saving from extinction a number of animals that had become very scarce and were unable to compete with the importations and altered conditions of life in that Dominion.

    At the present time kangaroo, deer, and opossum are absolutely protected on Freycinet's Peninsula and Schouten Island and will be for two years yet.  At the end of that period they may be given further sanctuary.  This is good so far as it goes but the protection thus afforded needs to be extended and the places named, or others that may be found more suitable, should be made sanctuaries for all native fauna.  There they could live under natural conditions, and meeting only natural enemies the struggle for existence would not be a severe one.  Certainly it would not be so severe as to prevent maintenance of the numbers of the various kinds. This is much to be desired in the interests of science, and though perhaps the average man will fail to see why, for instance, marsupial wolves should be saved from extinction the reasons are none the less potent, and the country which has lost its fauna has gaps in its history that can never be filled.  Apart from the scientific aspect, however, there is a commercial one and many useful fur and feather bearing creatures can be preserved and, when their numbers have sufficiently increased, used for breeding purposes in those parts from where their species had disappeared.  This has been practised with much success in New Zealand and though the same thorough system has not been adopted in New South Wales and Victoria the sanctuaries in those States have given encouraging results.  The cost of the upkeep of a sanctuary, so long as a suitable place is chosen, is not great, and the end amply justifies the cost.  Practical Governments, with many demands made on them for works of a public nature, may place roads and bridges first and regard a sanctuary for birds and animals as a thing