THE RABBIT PEST.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3136, 16 July 1881, Page 3

THE RABBIT PEST.

[To the Editor of the Daily Telegraph.] Sih,—l have just seen the report of the annual meeting of the Acclimatisation Society, and gather from it that the Rr.bbit Trustees have iDcurrsd lasting displeasure because they have dared to vote £200 towards importing weasels into the country. Some members of the society are disposed to handle the trustees very roughly, and as I am the guilty one I wish to take the whole blame upon myself, and spare my co-trustees the illusage they might otherwise suffer at the hands of the infuriated sportsmen. At a meeting held a short time ago I proposed that steps should be taken for importing weasels, stoats, ferrets, polecats, and foxes. My proposition was shelved, and at a subsequent meeting, thinking that half a loaf was better than no bread, I pleaded hard for the first animal on the list, and was so far fortunate that I gained my point by a majority of one, and thereby introduced the thin end of the wedge, which will eventually result in the importation of every rabbit killing animal I have named. To account for the course I have taken I will just state one or two facts in connection with the rabbit nuisance. Some time ago C visited Wairarapa for the express purpose of seeing what was being done. I had been told that poison had worked wonders; that after poi&oning the rabbits could easily be kept down by the employment of a few armed men, assisted by dogs. This sounded very well, but on actual examination I found that the North Wairarapa settlers were as far aB ever from the real solution of the question. Where the country is completely overrun poison is very effectual during the winter months, but enough rabbits always remain to give full employment to large numbers of men and dogs. On the very best country, where poison would be useless, it is costing at least £200 per annum on every 10,000 acres just to keep the rabbits within bounds ; on the inferior country it is costing much more, and on poor land it does not pay to kill rabbits at all, and many owners would gladly abandon portions of their land if at the same time they could abandon the rabbits, but as long as they remain in possession the law compels them to destroy the vermin. Pheasant shooting is unknown, as most of the birds have long ago fallen victims to posioned wheat. I travelled up the coast from Masterton to Akitio, making careful enquiries as I went. At Te Nui the first rabbits were seen just two years ago, and for a short time the settlers in that district paid 5s per head for each rabbit destroyed ; at the present time poisoned grain is being used by the ton. At Ohanga rabbits are now numerous, showing that in the short space of eighteen months, and in spite of inspectors, poison, dogging, and everything else, they have travelled twenty-five miles in the direction of Hawke's Bay. The area of the Hawke's Bay rabbit district is in round numbers three million acres, and supposing it all to be good clear country—which it is not,—a sum of at least £60,000 per annum will have to be expended in keeping rabbits within moderate bounds ; a large proportion of the rougher country will have to be abandoned, and tbe district lying north of Hawke's Bay as far asEast Cape will, owing to the nature of the soil, become a huge rabbit warren. £60,000 per annum ab- I solutely lost to our district is, I am persuaded, an estimate quite within the mark, but at tbe same time representing but a fraction of the ever increasing loss going °n all over tbe colony. The returns from the South Island show that up to the present time the decrease in the number of sheep, owing to the ravages of rabbits, is two millions, which at 5s per head means half a million sterling per annum, or in other words a sum of money that would have paid off the consolidated debt of the colony in a very lew years. The above shows beyond the possibility of contradiction that misdirected acclimatising energy has resulted in the introduction of the most dire calamity that has yet befallen the colony. Surely at the present time it is the duty of every Acclimatisation Society in the country to devote its energies in the direction of mitigating some of the evils for which acclimatisation is entirely responsible. I venture to predict there were men present at the meeting on Saturday who will live to Bee ruin staring them in the face, unless they can fiud some better cure for the rabbit pest than " trapping Babbit Trustees and weasels."—l am, &c,

J. N. Williams, A late member of the Acclimatisation Society. Wellington, July 14, 1881.