THE PROLIFIC RABBIT.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2057, 18 April 1907, Page 4

THE PROLIFIC RABBIT.

SERIOUS PEST IN THE KING COUNTRY. It was represented to tlio Hon. It. .UcNnb by members of the Kihikilii Town Board that rabbits are becoming a serious post in the King Country. The deputation urged upon the Minister the necessity ot some, "means being dovisod to copo with the alarming increase of the post, which found an unmolested breeding goutul upon the huge areas of native land lying idle. They considered the present, method of poisoning unsatisfactory, and suggested that the bonus system of destruction should be reverted to for two years as a trial. Mr. McNab showed considerable interest in the matter. Personally, bo was not in favor of reverting to the bonus system, because if it were instituted in Kihikilii it would have to be dono throughout the. colony, but be promised to go thoroughly into tho matter upon returning to ‘Wellington. In- the evening, »t To Awa mu til, another deputation of settlers pressed the rabbit nuisance question upon the Minister’s attention. The spokesman (Mr. Corboy) declared that no Crown official could say that during the last eight years the poisoning had caused a decrease in the' number of rabbits. A*dealer in Aueklahd was paying LOd per pound for rabbit skins, and if the Government paid three halfpence per skin and established canning factories, the rabbits would he exterminated. “Do you know where the rabbits arc worst in Now Zealand?” asked the Minister.

“No,” replied the spea'kor. “Well, 'it is in Otago,” declared Mr. McNab, “where wo have canning factories and -freezing works. Another speaker suggested that the Government could import wire netting and allow settlors to purchase it on easy terms.

Air. McNab replied that for the State to step in as a general rabbitkiller was beyond tho range of possibilities. He could quite understand why rabbits were kept down when the skins wore paid for, because everybody went catching rabbits and tho landowner paid nothing. When the liability was thrown on the owner nothing was done. The question was complicated in the district by the existence of Crown and native lands, but his Depatinent found that the Native Department was not prepared to pay for the extermination of rabbits which flourished side by side with canning factories, because sufficient breeding stock was always left to allow of tho industry continuing. The suggestion in regard to wire netting was the most practical method. He had no power to buy netting, but he could see that it was a useful method, and would look into the matter to see if the Government could give assistance to farmers whose lands adjoined Crown and native lands, so that a ring fence of rabbit-proof material could be constructed. Ho once looked into tho cost of killing rabbits which were frozen and preserved in New Zealand during one year, and found that it would cost £275,000 if the State did the work. Jviri Iviha, a chief of the Ngatinraniapoto tribe, came as a Maori deputation of one to the Minister, on the rabbit question. He was invited to sit down, but declined. “I am a chief, I stand up to speak,” he explained. “Salutations to you all,” he continued. “No good the rabbit poison; pay threepenny again, that’s all. Kia ora.” The speaker emphasized his brief utterance by prefacing the phrase rabbit poison with a sanguinary adjective. This deputation was unique in Air. A.lcNab’s oxperi-