THE RABBIT NUISANCE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 851, 9 August 1878, Page 2

THE RABBIT NUISANCE.

It is not often that the pages of the Government Gazette are found amusing or of sufficient interest to the general reader of light literature, but if anyone will take the trouble to turn to the last number (72, July 25th, 1878), he will there find—page 1046 under the heading “ Methods of destroying Rabbits,” as racy a bit of reading matter ns ever appeared in that wittiest of journals, the London “Punch.” Over three columns of the Gazette are gravely devoted to certain “Notes,” by Mr J. T. Thomson, Surveyor-General of New Zealand, who is on leave of absence in England, “ On the methods of oatching and destroying Rabbits and Vermin.” Mr Thomson tells us, in his notes referred to, which by the why, are transmitted through the Agent General, how he went to Budle Moor, in company with gamekeeper Dixon, to see how rabbits were trapped and snared, and this he describes with all the rainutim of a cookery book, h'OW rabbits were trapped and snared, and he proceeds to give the different modes of destruction, numbered 1, 2, and 3, being the snare, the trap, and the stifling system. Illustrated diagrams of these modes accompany the descriptions, so that “ those who run may real.” For instance, the fir’t being the sna r e—an article of course never heard of or seen by anyone before, is given with the elaborate accuracy of a gcodetioal survey plan there is drawn a fastening peg, the cord, the loop, and even the rabbit track, over which the rabbit of course must religiously go, otherwise it would be obviously unfair as ho would not be caught in the loop. In the same manner the “trap” is delineated, —an ordinary rattrap—being another startling novelty ; in this illustration to prevent misapprehension and make the effect of the rat-trap as clear as the light of day the artist in his diagram has faithfully depicted a'rabbit, of saturnine and melancholy cast of countenance, contemplating his fate by gazing at the trap within a few inches of bis nose, evidently fascinated to his destruction by its open jaws and terrible aspect. No one in looking at this picture can help shuddering at the ghastly details so forcibly depicted, nor help foretelling the irresistible doom of the unfortunate Rodent.

The third method, the stifling system, is much more complicated than the first and the second. It consists of a machine which costs about £2 ; there is a small blast fan and tube, which latter is inserted into the hole ; also a cylinder, which contains brimstone spread on thick brown paper. All being ready, “ The paper is lighted and pnt into the cylinder, through which a current of air is drawn by tho fanner, and so forced into the tube which leads into-tho burrowhole,” and heigh! ho !! quick presto !!! the rabbits iu the hole are all smashed up to smithereens, suffocated, absquatulated, and, in a word, destroyed. Here now—tho first and second plans failing—is a most effectual way of clearing a run of vermin, is to first catch your rabbit and then suffocate him, and to show the fearful result of mode number three our friend Thomson figures the process up by the rule of three fashion. “If,” he says, “the nests or burrows ho tolerably near, four at least could be fumigated in an hour, or thirty-two in a day of eight hours by oxe man, or doub/.e by two mek, five minutes being quite sufficient to kill tho animals. This would give 0,409 burrows in a yeqr of 200 working days, etc. . . . Each burrow may be calculated to hold ten rabbits, thus one man with Watte’ machine (the stiflor) might kill 64,000 head annually.”

Surely, after this clear exposition, the runholders of New Zealand will rise like one man and greet their Thomson with an ova* tion never before accorded to tho greatest of men, for years now has this plague of ra'/hits destroyed tho fairest tracts of country, in Southland especially, as well as other parts of tho Colony, and no man was found to suggest a remedy, though Royal Commissions were inaugurated, and wise men presided and suggested, it was Itft to

ft “ Thomson ” and bedad, ho has succeeded. A squatter now armed with his diagrams, bis snare, his traps and his Btifler, can re-enter his desolated possessions, and lo ! the rabbit will become a' thing of past, and his innumerable flocks of sheep will once more browse inluxnriant pastures, while tho haunting ghost of insolvency will be banished for ever.

Blessings on thy noble genius, Thomson, —philanthropist and benefactor of thy race —ft Howard, a ' Peabody and ft Newton rolled into one, thou could’st not enjoy thy well-earned repoae in distant Northumberland, but there even thou must still pursue thy studies for the happiness and araelioration of mankind in general and thy fellow colonists in particular. A good man is known by his works, and when our “ Thomson's " name ceases to be remembered by the generations yet to come, thy snare, thy traps andtby stifler, “Thomson ” can never be forgotten, because are they not recorded in those pages that shall never perish, w;here as a monument of thy glory and thy triumph they shall always remain, in the pages of the Government Gawtteof N.Z., A. D. 1878. Vale Thomson !