RATS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 844, 16 June 1910, Page 5

RATS.

. SEASONS FOR A CEUSADE. "We in New Zealand must wake up," declared Dr. Kndlay 'in concluding an address on "Eats" before the Mission to Seamcai last evening. Dr. Vaiioirine had assured him that the readiest iray in mliich ire could effectually protect. oiirE&lves against bubonic plague w.as by an. attack upon the cause of it, and that was rats. For economic Teasons—tho .prevention of waste—and also for health reasons war shouid bo made on rats. Eats were among the most prolific of pests. One pair of rate could, have a progeny of EOO in- one year. It was estimate! that there were forty million .rats in Great Britain—as many rats as people. It would be a very great pity if there should ever be as inany rats as people in New Zealand. Mr. J. Moore, missioner, suggested that Dr. Findlay should induce his colleagues to put a price of, say, one shilling a liead <m rats. He believed that certain .Tien in the room • would be a ; ble. to go Home in a few years as semi-millionaires. Mr. Moore asked members of the audience to hold up their hands who had seen twenty rats during tho last week, and a dozen or more hands were held up. There is a convention, whirih the health authorities may enforce i£ they think fit, that to prevent the csrapo o£ rats to shore, n distance of four inches must be left between a ship's side and the wharf, and a. tin disc used, as a further preventive. These precautions had 'their origin in Italy, but though tihey have been approved by modern , savants, it is stated that they take no account of tho agility of th> average Tat, which could'leap tho interval and disc quite ea>sily.