AGAIN THE RABBIT PEST

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 155, 27 March 1939, Page 8

AGAIN THE RABBIT PEST

Reports from both the Wairarapa and Otago have drawn attention to the spread of the rabbit pest, which once more is giving farmers cause for serious concern. In Central Otago it is said that but for the presence of millions of rabbits the carrying capacity of the district could be doubled, and landholders are agreed that a special campaign of eradication —a campaign on a scale beyond the means of the average farmer under present-day conditions —is required in order to keep the pest down. In the Wairarapa the Farmers’ Union is dissatisfied with the part played by the Government in rabbit control, it being contended that more inspectors and better transport facilities are required. “The methods of the department,” said one speaker at a meeting of the union’s executive in Masterton, “are 20 years out of date.” Meanwhile the problem appears to be reassuming the proportions of 20 years or more ago. Seasonal conditions have had to do with the multiplying of rabbits this summer, but the economic factor has also been a large one. On the one hand low prices for skins have caused a reduction in the numbers taken for market purposes, and have deprived the farmer of much of the welcome assistance he received previously from trappers in keeping the pest down. On the other hand, high costs, and in particular the high cost of labour, have increased the difficulty of carrying out systematic eradication as part of the normal farm routine. . Experience has shown clearly that apart from seasonal variation in bleeding conditions the rabbit menace is an ever-present one. The farmers, likewise the country, cannot afford to relax effort, for even a short period of increased breeding can undo the work of a long, costly programme of poisoning, trapping and fencing. The position today, temporarily worsened though it is by an adverse combination of circumstances, is one which should not go unnoticed by the Government. It is the duty of the Ministei of Agriculture to ensure that rabbit inspection is effective. Inadequate methods cannot be afforded, for in the campaign to maintain and increase national production, the welfare of agriculture demands pi ide o f p] ace .— ariC l the rabbit is a not inconsiderable opponent of that welfare.