RABBIT NUISANCE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1107, 20 July 1883, Page 3

RABBIT NUISANCE.

(From the Morning Herald). We have received the following circular ' letter fiom Mr C. de V. Teschemaker, of Nelson : Sir—The ruin with which tho rabbit threatens New Zealan ! induces mo to lay before yoa the following returns obtained from iha Registrar General's Office : •

A. glance at the above will show that our effirta in the direction of increasing the products of the country have not b sen succtssfu! and that some tremendous influence has heeu working aeainst us. What do we rind ! An increase iri artificial grasses from 1874 to 1881 of 2.375,580 acres, and increase in the number of sheep of 1.280.232, and an increase in value of wool of £75.01)5 What might ha* o been expected to be the result had no enemy been working against us, may be stated thus: —An in c ease in artificial grasses "f 2,375,580 acivs, estimating the carrying capacity at three sheep to an acre (allowing the country in its , natural state to carry one sheep to two , aces) on.'ht to be followed by an increase of 5,935,950 sheep, and the increase I value of expo t of wool, at 4s 9 1 per head, would be £1,584,698. The returns would then stand thus : Land in Value Wool Artificial Sheep. Exported. Grasses. £ 1874 ...1.181,3 .9 11,764 353 2.834,69 _ > 1881 ..3,556,949 18,924. C 35 4,494,458 The fourth column of the retur.i shows that in 1864 we exported LIB7B worth of rabbitskins, whilst in 1882 the export rose to 1,88 725, showinq an increase of L 86.847. The New Zwiland Agricultural Company's yearly statement shows an a-set of L 5355 Is 91 for rabhitskins, but the cist of destroying th ; animals which yielded those skins was no less than L 8745 3s 9d. Hut now let us come to the loss by depreciation, occasioned by the rabbit, in the value of the lands of the Statn in Otago and Southland alone. It is very difficult to estimate, with any degree of accuracy, from any published statistics ; but if the Government deem it worth wh te to order the calculation it might easily be arrived at. At any rate we know ihat 5:10 000 acres in the Wakatipu dis rict cannot i>e re leased at all—one half because it is too poor and rough, and the other half on account of the rabbit. Then, with the excep ion of one or two runs, at the la.e sale of runs in 'he bediming of the year an average of 10J i per sheep, u >set price, only w s obtained previously, showing a loss to the country of per head. It is surely w thin the mark to sav that the State directly loses some L200.0'0 a year by this alone. The loss o the r.ve >ue, so for as it is derived from the property tax, the loss occasioned by the country oeiug a waste instead of supporting a tax paying population, the loss of wool -X iorts, the loss in value of pastoral country, the loss in annual rentals, the loss in vain endeavours to deereese t;ie evils of she rabbit eurse,a Ided together, will, I am sure amount in the abrogate to more, than the whole of. the interest to the outside creditor, winch, according to the U doni I Treasurer's statement, has reached L 1,700,0 ■)(). Go on as we are now doing, and we shall be a ruined community in ten years ! The mischief Wrought injures us ad : Hospital en lowments, Harnour Board endowments, e lII* national an I university endowments, the shipping interest, merchants, tradesme i, labourers—all are affects I. 1 read in a newspaper that Mr M ' ICenzi '~ M. H. It for Moeraki, waxing warm on the rabbit question during his speech ou the Address in-Reply, went so far as to sav that "he would not be surprise I if this rab lit question had the eilect of turning out the Government," an expression of opinion at which Ministers are reported to have laughed merrily. One of the in >st unfortunate phases of the rabbit question is the iuore iulity with which the forebodings of so called alarmists hive hitherto been treated, and hence, I suppose, the " merry" laugh of the Ministers ; but, to my min 1, the rabbit question is one of the gravest of the day. It, is possible that excepiion may lie taken to some of my deductions from the above returns, but I submit that I have made out a sntticiem ly strong case to show that it behoves the Government to do its utmost to check the Ipest that threatens the country will utter ruin, and which now finds a place of refuse on the lan Is of the Crow i. The evil to day is great ; in the future it promises to be overwhelming. 1 bold, then, that no sum is too great to ciffe.ras a reward in this and other countries, for the ext -r----niination of the scourge; no sum too large too be aunualiy devote 1 to destroying t.h • rabbit, an I n i tax could b i m >r« just than one levied for this purpot-e. United action and the adoption of proper methods are necessary, and it they are not ic-orted to soon it is impossible to estimate to what ex tent the evil will have have spiead iu the course of a few years. As 1 am de-uroua Jto interest, without wearying you, [ will now touch upon the moans that might be adopte 1 for the eradication of the evil, but will reserve this f u- a future letter. In the mean lime I venture to hope that you will give the su jeet that serious consideration which, from us gravity it deserves. I have assumed that there has been no great increase between 1874 an I ISSI in the number of horned cattle, but on the other hand I have not taken t.ne root crops into account, ami these would either feed the in- • creased number of cattle or make the loss in sheep more appvren'.

Law! in Artificial Gras'es. Value Sheep. wool expureed. Value Skins exported. £ ft 1874 1,181,369 11.704,850 2,832,695 1,878 1875 l,434,9>*2 18.394.155 3 913 187U l.819.«81 3.395,816 4.418 1 1877 2 202.640 3,658 938 7.838 lh78 2.608 8.J9! 13,009 338 3 492,807 3:UIS0 1 1879 2,897,911 13,126 439 46.759 3,341.289 3,109,300, 00 970 1881 3,5.')i;,949 12,985,085|-2,919,76tl| 84 774 | 1882 3,938,009 3,118,554i 88,720 1883 1