GAME PRESERVATION AND THE TSETSE-FLY. rTo THIC RUMOR Or TUB
.SPWFAT011.1 Suz,—Mr. T. M. Hastings writes to you (Spectator, March 2nd) in support of the theory that the tsetse-fly, which is believed to carry the poison of the sleeping sickness, is dependent for its existence on certain species of game, which he does not specify. He does not specify them because neither he nor any one else has exact knowledge on the subject ; but to satisfy his theory he proposes to destroy all species of game over a certain area by way of experiment. It is obvious that the area, to make the experiment satisfactory, would have to be an extremely wide one. If it were a restricted area, it is plain that the experiment might be vitiated by incursions of fly or of game from the outside. Surely the science of the subject has not reached such a stage as to justify this measure of destruction. Mr. Hastings quotes Mr. Austin, of the British Museum, a great authority on the tsetse-fly, in support of his theory ; but if he examines the important Blue-book recently issued to Parliament in which this subject is dealt with, he will find Mr. Austin saying that, "before signing the death warrants of a number of beautiful and harmless animals, and so rendering ourselves liable to the censure of future generations, haply less purely utilitarian than the present, it behoves us, even at the risk of being stigmatised as 'armchair faddists' by the Central African Times, to see that we do not act hastily, and that before taking an irrevocable step we are quite sure of our facts." Mr. Hastings anticipates that the dread disease will spread south to the Zambesi Valley, "as there is a great deal of fly country intervening." This is a loose way of dealing with a highly technical question. Which fly does he refer to ? The tsetse-fly which conveys the sleeping sickness is totally distinct from that responsible for diseases
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