Alligators
Planter Menaced By
And Administration Seizes Only Gun.
[Letter to the Editor ] I WAS interested in a paragraph in a recent issue about alligators by Miss Bignell, of Bogotu Island.
My own experience may be of interest.
For the last 13 years we have been pestered by alligators, and it is a com mon sight to see half a dozen of them having a sun bath on the banks of a river adjoining our boundary.
Some months ago, our watch dog was carried away and one heifer and two fully grown cows had their hindquarters torn off. The alligator appeared to be about 20 feet long.
Six natives have been carried away in broad daylight, since we arrived on this Island in 1920.
One morning I hung a sugar-bag, which had contained a piece of fresh meat, some distance from the beach.
During the night, an alligator came and swallowed the bag, as well as various ducks of mine. Some days later, the natives killed an alligator that was after their pigs. It happened to be the alligator, that had swallowed the sugar bag, as it was found in its stomach.
Just recently, the Administration’s tax-gatherer came along, and demanded payment of a tax for every gun we had. Times are hard, so we refused to pay the tax. Consequently, our gun was confiscated. Now, we are at the mercy of these horrible reptiles. We cannot protect ourselves, let alone the natives, as we used to do.
I am, etc.,
(Mrs.) Edith Svensen.
Kokomuruki I.,