PLUMAGE (PROHIBITION OF SALE OR EXCHANGE OF) (No. 2) BILL. (Hansard, 19 July 1910)

§ Mr. ALDEN

I ask leave to introduce a Bill "to prohibit the sale or exchange of the plumage and skins of certain wild birds."

I should not attempt to detain the House, but the matter is urgent just now. The President of the Board of Trade and 1083 the Secretary of the Colonies are consulting together as to the best legislation that could be passed in order to obtain protection for wild bird now exported from our Colonies and Possessions. From many of our Colonies and Possessions these rare birds are exported against the wish of the people. The skins and plumages of these rare birds are for the most part exported to London and to Paris, and the object of this Bill is to try and prevent the absolute extinction of the few rare birds still in existence. The Bill that passed the House of Lords in 1908 was a Bill which prohibited the importation of the plumage of almost all birds. I only venture to include in the Schedule to this Bill a few birds that are on the point of extinction and which can be saved if a Bill is passed into law in the next year or two. The calculation is that these birds will be extinct within the next three or four years unless some protection is given, and I hope that this Bill, or some Bill drafted by the Board of Trade with the object of effecting this purpose, may be passed at no distant time. There is a law in Australia preventing the exportation of the plumage of certain rare birds. One of these birds is the emu; but last year 1,019 emu skins were catalogued for sale in London which had been smuggled out of Australia against the will of the people. The present Prime Minister of Australia (Mr. Fisher) said, in a speech referring to Lord Crewe's proposals for preventing the indiscriminate slaughter of plumage birds:— Such suggestions would meet with a very favourable reception from the Commonwealth. Native birds were already protected in New Guinea, but in the mainland the only Federal power was the prohibition of export. If any sale was going on it ought to be restricted or prevented. Many species of humming birds are almost extinct. In Trinidad, the different species have been reduced from eighteen to five, and 25,000 humming birds' skins were catalogued for sale in London last year. In 1910, twenty-three plumage pirates were arrested at the Hawaiian Island reservation, and they had 259,000 pairs of wings and two tons of other feathers, so that they are rapidly exterminating the birds on the islands. In the North Pacific reservation, 300,000 bird skins were taken, and several men in their efforts to protect these birds have been assassinated by the plumage pirates. Many Members on both sides of the House have done much to help in this direction. The senior Member for Oxford University (Sir William Anson) has always been 1084 interested in this matter, and introduced a Bill which was almost exactly the same as the Bill I am introducing now. There are many Members of the party opposite who take a very great interest in the preservation of historical and ancient monuments, and they are equally anxious to save the picturesque spots of English scenery. I believe there is practically no opposition to this Bill, which simply makes an attempt to save these rare birds from absolute extinction, and I am sure if the hon. Member who opposed this Bill up to the present knew the actual facts he would withdraw his opposition. I wonder whether hon. Members are aware that the number of egrets killed and exported from Venezuela alone in 1908 was 1,528,000. Owing to that amount of slaughter, the number last year was reduced to 250,000. The plumes of these beautiful birds are cut from them before they are half dead during the breeding season, and the young ones are left to starve to death. I hope I have said enough to convince the House this is a matter of urgency, and I trust before long this or some similar Bill will be passed into law.

§ Mr. CARLILE

Yes, Sir. I am sure the hon. Member was quite warranted in what he said, that the object of the Bill would meet with sympathy in all corners of the House. The hon. Member's Bill, however, would not have the effect desired. It would prohibit the exportation and sale of the plumage of birds in this country. That would not bring about what we all wish to see—the preservation of these birds. The result of the passage of this Bill would be that what at present comes to London would be transferred tc Brussels or Antwerp or Amsterdam or Hamburg or some other foreign city. The industry would be simply transferred from us to foreign markets, and at the present moment no one could contemplate such a thing with anything like indifference. It is useless for us, as one nation, alone to move in the matter. It is clearly a matter for international arrangement. If those countries which are in favour of the preservation of these beautiful plumage brids would come together, if the hon. Member would do something to promote that end, then the object he has at heart would be carried out; but without some such 1085 arrangement as that this Bill would be detrimental to a trade which has a value for many people in this country. On these grounds I find myself unable to support the hon. Member's Motion.