too apt to live on the capital of all our natural resources. We are also
in the habit of developing one thing at the expense of everything else
connected with it. The value of these other things often remains
unrecognised till too late. For instance, reckless railways burn forests
which ensure a constant flow of water for irrigation, navigation, power
plant, and fish, besides providing wood for timber and shelter for bird
and beast. The presence of a construction gang generally means the
needless extermination of every animal in the neighbourhood. The
presence of mills means the needless absence of fish. And the presence
of ill-governed cities means the needless and deadly pollution of water
that never was meant for a sewer. The idea is the same in each
disgraceful case. It is, simply, to snatch whatever is most coveted for
the moment, with least trouble to one's self, and at no matter what
expense to Nature and the future of man. The cant phrase is only too
well known--"Lots more where that came from". Exploitation is destroying
now what civilisation will long to restore hereafter. This is lamentably
true about material things. It is truer still about the higher than
material things. And it is truest of all about both the material and
higher values of wild life, which we administer as if we were the final
spendthrift heirs and not trustees.

Animal sanctuaries are places where man is passive and the rest of
Nature active. A sanctuary is the same thing to wild life as a spring is
to a river. In itself a sanctuary is a natural "zoo". But it is much
more than a "zoo". It can only contain a certain number of animals. Its
surplus must overflow to stock surrounding areas. And it constitutes a
refuge for all species whose lines of migration pass through it. So its
value in the preservation of desirable wild life is not to be denied. Of
course, sanctuaries occasionally develope troubles of their own; for if
man interferes with the balance of nature in one way he must be prepared