Fiji’S Wild Game Safe

-For Time Being

SUVA, April 22.

ALONG campaign to save wild game birds in Viti Levu from extinction has at last had some success—with the aid of the January hurricane.

The Government has prohibited the shooting of game birds in Viti Levu for two years. The ban, which applies to the Fijian wood pigeon, the barking pigeon, the fruit or chili pigeon, wild duck, quail, teal, wid geon, curlew, plover, snipe, tattler, sandpiper, godwit and jungle fowl, has been imposed “to give the birds time to recover from the damage done to their living and feeding grounds by the hurricane.”

By far the worst culprits have been a number of people who possess cars but no sense of responsibility. Round about May, almost any Sunday, one may see cars dotted along the high ways in the forested hill areas, and bands of armed men prowling about with furtive expressions while occasional policemen fight a strenuous but losing campaign to keep a check on individual “bags.”

The result has been that pigeons are now a rarity in some areas. We can hope that the current ban on shooting these birds is not just another idea that fails for lack of

rigid enforcement.