WAR ON RATS

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 310, 24 September 1921, Page 2

WAR ON RATS

DESTRUCTION URGED FOR SAKE OF PUBLIC HEALTH MAYOR ASKS FOR CITIZENS’ A!D - The Mayor (Mr.. R. A. Wright, M.P.) has received a, memorandum from the Minister of Public Health, enjoining him to take all possible measures to destroy rats in. tho city; .in view of the discovery of bubonic plague among the rats ih Brisbane and Sydney. ■ The Mayor desires that all persons who are aware that their premises are more or less rat-infested, should take immediate steps to destroy the vermin aifc once by any effectual means. Steps are to be taken immediately to kill off the rats which inhabit Jam Tin Gully—a wellknown breeding-ground at the southern end' of the city, and the corporation’s inspectors are being instructed to take special precautions whilst on their pounds to locate rat-infested premises. "So far as we know," said the Mayor, "our rats are healthy, but in view of the outbreak of plague it is the duty of everyone to do the utmost to destroy them in the interest of the health of tho city." ’’ , , The Town Clerk (Mr. J. R. Palmer) stated that the motor-car might como in handy as a. rat-destroying agent. He had read recently of a farmer whosh barn was infested with rats. ’Knowing how poisonous the fumes from- tho exhaust of his car were, he mado tho barn as air-tight as possible, and led a hose attached to his exhaust-pipe into tho place. Then he started the engine running, and in a couple of hours he had destroyed 400 rats!