RABBIT CONTROL

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 11, Issue 83, 22 September 1947, Page 5

RABBIT CONTROL

PONGAKAWA BOARD MEETING At the September meeting of the Pongakawa Rabbit Board last week the secretary reported that the Department of Agriculture had referred the following claims for work done on State Forest land back to the Board and that these claims had now been sent to, the State Forest Department. Quarter ended 31st March, 1947, £2O 6s 3d; quarter ended 30th June, 1947, £54 14s 4d. The secretary was directed to confer with the State Forest Department regarding payment of these claims and to enquire whether future claims are to be sent direct to that Department or not.

With regard to the Local Body Commission for consolidation of efforts the secretary reported that he had conferred with Mr Denize and he understood that the Department had submitted evidence to the Local Government Commission that it was opposed to the abolition of Rabbit Boards and recommended that as their work was of a specialised nature the present constitution continue, but in some districts it may be necessary for some of the Boards to be amalgamated. Trapping Discouraged

Mr McKenzie stated that he had received a report to the effect that one of the rabbiters was trapping and marketing the skins. The information appeared to him to be reliable but he had not yet thoroughly checked it.

Mr Davis stated that this particular rabbiter had 20 or 30 traps and he knew that he used them during weekends for this purpose and he knew that other rabbiters used traps for the purpose of trappingrabbits as food for the dogs.

Up to the present he had not taken any steps to curtail this as it appeared to him that the trapping during weekends, when the rabbiters found time, was of assistance to the Board in eliminating the rabbit pest. The matter was discussed fairly fully and the opinion was expressed that commercial trapping was definitely not in the interest of the Board, although some discretion would require to be used particularly regarding food for the dogs. Inspector’s Report

In his monthly report the Inspector (C. H. Davis) intimated that his staff had poisoned 9,200 acres and fumigated 12,950 acres, using 6(371bs of phosphorised pollard and 1061bs of cyanogas. With the breeding season in full swing an increase of rabbits was noticeable in some places, the worst area being from Thompson’s to Bi’idge’s just past the Manawahe Hall. He had shifted an extra man to this area and with two men working there for a few weeks it should be possible to hold this counti'y. This area is the worst place of country he had had to work on the whole of the Board’s area. The rest of the area is in very fair order for this season of the year and was a big improvement on last spring.