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Show Mother Nature Laughs at Man's Puny Efforts Man has succeeded almost beyond his expectations in the "conquest of nature." yet news items come in every now and then to remind him how much of the conquering remains to be done, i If countries not yet wholly reclaimed from the wild, India furnishes probably the most conspicuous example. Estimates Esti-mates for tli e past year show that the jungle is an even more serious issue than the problems of Swaraj, in that in 12 months 3.60.J people were killed hy wild animals and 20,000 died from snake bite. Sometimes the enemy does not kill, but conies near it by destroying destroy-ing the means of livelihood for whole populations. Recall what happened after the English introduced the rub-hit rub-hit into Australia about the year 1800. The results have been described us "astounding." Not only were grass anil the barks of trees consumed ; fruit and vegetables were eaten up or destroyed de-stroyed in enormous quantities. Un-availingly. Un-availingly. as it seems, the government erected wire fences as a protection, one of them 2i0 miles long. Today the annual loss caused to Australian product pro-duct Ivity by rabbits is estimated at S100.00n.000. and the farmers are besieging be-sieging the federal treasury department depart-ment for relief. Exchange. |