The Daily Telegraph. FRIDAY, AUGUST 17, 1883.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3772, 17 August 1883, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. FRIDAY, AUGUST 17, 1883.

■ Rabbits have taken such complete possession of that part of the colony of Victoria ■ known as the Malice country that special legislation has to he provided to meet the evil. Every year the difficulty of dealing with this country to any advantage has in- , creased, and now it is admitted on all hands that vigorous action can no longer he delayed. The Age says that the country is literally going to the dogs and the rabbits. In 1879 the expenditure on \ the work of exterminating them was £000 ; it rose to .-£ISOO in ISBO ; last year it was £0500, and the current year it will not be less than £10,000, The losses on stock and the deficiency of wool since the irruption ; of the vermin are calculated to exceed £1,000,000 sterling. The country once produced about SOOO bales of wool per annum ; it now produces less than 1000. Taking ; each bale at £20, the loss is £110,000. The stock have fallen to one-tenth the number depastured before the rabbits came, and this number is lessening day by day ; on the other hand, the rabbits themselves are multiplying so rapidly that having devastated the interior of the Malice they are now collecting on the fringe of land which separates it from the settled country, which is threatened with an immediate irruption. This danger the Government bill will make an attempt to guard against. It will give power to the lessees to constitute a local board, which shall have authority to .strike a rate for the purpose of creating a fund to be devoted to the work of extermination ; and in order that united action may be encouraged, tho Crown itself will be liable to the assessment for any unoccupied country. The , effect of this provision will bo to transfer the cost of extermination from the Crown to those who arc most immediately interested, and who may naturally be expected to see that the money which they contribute shall bo expended economically and to some purpose. Of course there must be some stipulation or covenant set out in every lease whereby the tenant undertakes to destroy the vermin on his block within a given time, and to keep it clear during the currency of his lease; or else the proposed board would be comparatively useless. The tenure will be that of leasehold only. Alienation would be a serious mistake in a country like the Malice. The Government would get very little for it, for the simple reason that there would be little or no competition ; and it would part with some 12,000,000 or ' 13,000,000 of acres of the public estate, 1 which, though barren enough now, may in 1 course of time be reclaimed by some unexpected discovery of science, and which will ' at any rate ho improved in value by the extinction of the rabbit pest. A lease of • °0 or 9 o years would be long enough to tempt tho moderate capitalist, especially if he is secured the right of renewal at the expiration of that time upon equitable terms. Both South Australia and New South Wales, in dealing with their Mallee country, make the rent based upon the actual number of sheep depastured ; the bill should provide that in any case a certain minimum number to the square mile .should be paid for. In South Australia the assessment is fixed at 2d per head annually all through without any variation ; but we do not see why the State should not have a share in the incremented value of the land as it gradually gets reclaimed from the pest that fs now devastating it. The rate must be uniform, no doubt; hut there is nothing in equity to prevent it being raised at the expiration of a certain term, say at the end of the first ten years. If it were doubled at that period it would then he not more than half the present charge. The measure proposing to deal with the Malleo country is of interest to us here; for though, perhaps, it is worse land than anything we have in New Zealand, except in our pumice sand deserts, we have vast unoccupied poor lands that sooner or later will be the homo of the , rabbit. For the safety of the rich

and productive lands the day will come when something must be done to secure the occupation of the poor country. In Otago, at the present time, some runs that were formerly highly remunerative to their owners are now abandoned to the rabbits, and we think that there is something wanting in our legislation that this should bo the case. Another fact that shows the deficiency of the present Rabbit Act is, that it altogether failed to meet the emergency that lr.'.s arisen at tho south of this province, and which lias had to be dealt with voluntarily by the settlors The existing law on the subject of rabbit extermination is in fact the worst one of any of its predecessors, and must remain so till, where there is a community of interest, the measure enforces ■ combination for mutual advantage.