Sanctuaries in Holland
In the week when the schemes for natural preservation in Britain were published, as a sort of postscript to the Governmental schemes for National Parks, there came to me from Holland a most persuasive illustrated pamphlet on The Protection of Nature in the Netherlands. The people seem to care more than we do for such objects. In spite of the intensive cultivation of the soil and absence of wild, especially of hilly, country, their private Society for the Preservation of Nature Reserves has 15,000 members, while our preservers of marsh and fenland are forced, for lack of members and money, to let precious land for shooting purposes in order to acquire enough money to pay their watchers. The Naardermeer, where the spoonbill, the purple heron, the bittern and little bittern and water-rail breed, is neither bigger nor more valuable a sanctuary than Hickling and Horsey, which asks vainly for the £7,000 necessary to preserve those incomparable haunts of rare birds both small and great. The Netherland experiences in regard to their National Park are worth the attention of our planners. It is written, for example, " Much damage was done by the campers, and their conduct gave 'reason for complaint in other ways." To encourage and facilitate public access without doing damage to preservation remains one of the cardinal difficulties. In the Netherlands Boy Scouts have done valuable service in this regard.
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