THE INTRODUCTION OF RABBITS

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19177, 7 December 1927, Page 13

THE INTRODUCTION OF RABBITS

TO THE EDITOR OT THS PMSS. Sir, At various times I have read accounts (which differed a good deal) about the introduction of rabbits into Canterbury, but a day or so ago I came across some further information which may be of interest to farmers in the province, who suffer from the depredations of this animal. I was reading the original diary of E. R. Ward, ?i De nl Pilgrims who came out in the Charlotte Jane, who took up as his selection Quail Island, in Lyttelton Harbour. Under date, April 7th, 1851, Mr Ward writes: "Of all fish in the sea what should they have found and shot on the Island but a rabbit—a fine black and white one, a buck, very fat. Abernethy thought it was a wild cat or he would have let it go." This date above-mentioned is a good deal earlier than any other date I have seen mentioned in connexion with any liberation of rabbits in Canterbury, and it would I think, be distinctly interesting, if any reader who has information on this subject, would write to your paper and give it publicity. How this rabbit got on to Quail Island early in 1851 seems a complete mystery, and*unfortunately Mr Ward gives no information about it, or where it might have come from except the quotation I have referred to. — Yours, etc., W. W. DUNSTERVILLE.