The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1908. THE RABBIT SCOURGE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2368, 8 December 1908, Page 4

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1908. THE RABBIT SCOURGE.

It would be ia deplorable state of affairs if that curse of the pastoralist, the rabbit, were to once gain a hold in'the Gisborne district, yet according to the .latest reports to hand there is a very great danger of this occurring. Slowly but surely the bunny seems to be making tracks towards this greatly favored territory, and if once he becomes fairly entrenched within our borders he will contest with sheep and cattle for every blade of grass that grows on the rich lands of the Motu or the Wairoa country. The Agricultural Department boasts of tlie.suc- . pess which has attended the efforts of settlers acting under its direction in eradicating the scourge in those parts of the Dominion where it once nourished, but it is not certain that the conditions were similar to those which would exist in this district, and in any case the work of eradication involved an immense expenditure that need never have occurred had preventive measures been taken in time. Once a few colonics of rabbits become established in the heart of this district, pastoralists will be faced with a situation that may prove disastrous to them, '.rhe warm climate would prove most propitious for the multiplication of the pest, which would breed every month of the year,'and the task of trapping or poisoning them .in their thousands when their burrows were located in the bu’sli lands of this locality would bo lieart-brea'king, if not entirely hopeless. There is much of our land that is 'almost inaccessible, and it is this fact which would form the greatest protection to the rabbit. Then would come the trapping and freezing industry, for there is always a section of the farming community so misguided as to look upon tlie frozen rabbit trade as a profitable occupation. They labor under the delusion that they are gaining a twofold benelit by pocketing a certain revenue and destroying a number of tlie pest. This is, of course, an utter fallacy, as they find to their cost. They have only to reckon up how many rabbits eat an equivalent amount of grass to a sheep or a cow to see their mistake. And the rabbit does not graze on the poor, sour parts of the property, but likes the sweet picking as does other stock. Once this stage is reached the settlers have not only to combat the pest itself, but also the vested interests which have been established and which are concerned in maintaining a supply of rabbits for the trapping and freezing trade. Just now, when the low price of wool has made it urgently 'necessary that no factor likely to decrease the carrying capacity of our pastures must be neglected, it behoves the settlers to watch very carefully lest the rabbit should get a hold in this district. Every year the chain seems to be tightening round us. Rabbits arc said to have reached within a few miles of Wairoa, whilst numbers are to bo found in the Eastern Taupo district. Men who have had a lengthy experience- in dealing with the rabbit pest declare emphatically that once bunny gets established in the Cook or Waiapu districts he must inevitably lake charge and keep it. In the South Island poisoning operations can bo .successfully carried on during those portions of the winter months when the ground is frozen and the rabbit has to scuttle around looking for food,. and again when the ground is bare with the scorching heat of summer a?£2>fche result of a rainless period similar work can bo done. In this district, however, the rabbit would be practically king. The mildness of the climate would enable breeding to continue practically throughout the year, whilst the dampness of the atmosphere and soil and the prevalence of feed throughout tlie winter months would' make pollard poisoning at- that period an impossibility. In the summer months the periodical showers that always occur along the Coast would likewise make it exceedingly difficult to hiy poison -with any prospect of obtaining successful results. The slieepfarmer would enter upon an experience at present unknown to him, and the imminence of which is, we fear, unrealised. Tlie inconvenience of having poison laid in all parts of liis run, the bands -of trappers with their dogs overrunning his paddocks and' getting amongst his sheep, endless purchases of expensive rabbit-proof fencing, are but a few of the annoyances which would tend' to make the pastoralist’s life a very miserable one. Men who know what the scourge really means _ have declared that once it-enters this district- they will sell out, for they consider that here the bunny would be the absolute master. The position is a very serious one, and settlers will be well advised to keep , a sharp look-out for any signs of the pest,, and keep the officers of tlie Stock Department well posted with information on tho matter, jjot only that, but they

night fittingly discuss the wisdom of erecting rabbit-proof fences in order to effectually keep the rodent without our boundaries, at any rate from the Southern end.