Feilding Star. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1883. The Rabbit Nuisance.

Feilding Star, Volume IV, Issue 54, 9 October 1883, Page 2

Feilding Star. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1883. The Rabbit Nuisance.

The steady increase of the raWiit pest in various parts of the f'olony. and especially in thos« district- whore shet'pfarmin"; is the main S'.urcv i)f income, is assuming* such alarming proportions that even the farmer-; themselves have awakened o a sen<e of the dangers of fhwir position. In Canterbury a precautionary measure is being- adopted, which ought to have boen done years ago, when the first warning note was sounded by the Christ-church Press. A rabbit proof boundary fence is about to be erected between the infected province of Otago and the Canterbury Plains. After the harm is done 'hou-ands of precautionary measures will be takon, and many will regret, when they are payirg enormous pumsof money, that thiy did not take earlier steps to stump out the plague that is actually robbing 1 th^m and their families. • Mr Tkschemaker, of Nelson, is doing good work in this direction, and in a letter published under date of th< 29th ulto, has shown conclusively that the capital vaiun of '.ho Colon}' has suffered a loss of £3,000,000 from this cause. 'I he annual loss from depreciation ot the. number of sheep carried by the lan.i is £1,700.000 He demonstrated that as taxpayerwe suffer a loss of £15,750 to the revenue, which would be derived from property tax on £5,969,428. Loss on pastoral rents, £30,000 Nett loss after deducting sale of rabbit skins, £56,250. Loss on wool export £1 500,000, which is a loss to merchants and all classes of the community. Our object in now writing is to draw the attention of the fanuo-s and settlers on the banks of the Kai.gitikei, at and about Parawanui, to the presence of hundreds of rabbits in the sand hills. These may be doing 1 very little harm at present, but in another year they will have increased more than can be estimated ; where there are >i hundred now there will then be a thousand. Now is the time to face the approaching danger. A hundred pounds spent during the summer months in the j extermination of the rabbits, old and yoiji.g, will be the means of saving the expenditure of thousands, and also of averting" what may be utter ruin ti» mapy a struggling settler. We believe the Maoris coula be made to contribute their share towards the expense of clearing their own lands by work and labor done in killing and snaring, which they would much prefer to paying away cash. A few pt»nc per .skirt would incite them to the task. < l <n the Oroua Downs active steps are being taken in the work of destruc tion, and it is to be hoped that the good example thus given will be followed everywhere on the coast*