Our Wild Life.

The case is strong for the establishment of a Wild Life Control Board, as has often been urged, which shall co-ordinate the activities of the various bodies interested in the preservation of native birds and of the indigenous forests, and matters affecting shooting and fishing in the Dominion.

Perhaps the control of trout-fishing could with advantage be taken over by the Fisheries Department, which has its staff of experts; but all else could come under the proposed Board. The Native Bird Protection Society, which has done so much excellent work in the interests of the forest life, is fairly entitled to strong representation on such a body.

Indeed, the need for a united effort on behalf of New Zealand forests for New Zealand birds is urgent. Deer are not the page 44 worst enemy of the native bush. The insidious opossum is working havoc with the comparatively defenceless birds. It cannot be too often pointed out that every foreign creature let loose in the bush means so much less food, so much more danger, for the beautiful creatures that have lived in the forests for untold ages in security. Extermination of the interlopers is the only cure.