RABBIT PLAGUE.

Globe, Volume VI, Issue 614, 7 June 1876, Page 3

RABBIT PLAGUE.

SIX THOUSAND RABBITS KILLED WEEKLY ON ONE RUN.

The report of the Commission appointed by his Honor the Superintendent to inquire into the extent of the rabbit plague in the district of Southland has been published in the Otago Provincial Gazette. From a summary of it in the Guardian of June 2nd we extract the following passages ; “ The whole of Southland is infested with rabbits. Where the country is favorable for their occupation—that is, well grassed, well sheltered, and not cold nor damp—there rabbits may be seen in vast numbers ; while in the open country, where means are constantly and effectively used to exterminate them, they are kept within moderate bounds. In the neighborhood of Riverton beach, however, rabbits are less numerous than they were ; while, in places where only a few were seen a short time back, as in the Dunstan district, they may now be seen in vast numbers. Again, in the Marewhenua country, in the north of Otago, where they have been known to have existed for thirteen years, they have not increased, while in the Tapanui country they are represented to be alarmingly numerous. “ With regard to the expense attending the destruction of these pests, the Commissioners report:—The expense of exterminating the rabbit is becoming a very serious item. Take, for instance, a run where three years since scarcely a rabbit was to be seen: there are now sixteen men with one hundred and twenty dogs employed, costing the lessee twopence for each rabbit skin, and ten shillings a week for each man. On this run the average number of rabbits killed weekly is between four and five thousand, and though thirty-six thousand were killed last year, yet the report is that there is no appreciable decrease. On another run we learn that close on sixteen thousand rabbits were killed during the first three months of the present year, at a cost of twopence a skin. On a third the expense each week averages £27, and fifty thousand rabbits had been killed since last year. On a fourth we find nine men employed with sixty dogs, killing at the rate of two thousand per week. This enumeration might be almost indefinitely extended. It only remains to state that in some cases as much as threepence a skin is paid, and even a horse and provisions are found ; in others powder and shot, averaging twopence per charge, are given in addition to twopence per skin. It is to be remembered, also, that in some instances the dogs are fed on sharps, and occasionally on mutton, as, it is said, feeding on rabbits is apt to give distemper, and owing to the demand the price of dogs has risen, varying from £5 to £ls each. It is generally considered that seventy to one hundred rabbits a day may be reckoned a fair average supposing the man to be well supplied with ammunition and dogs, which in most cases are provided by the ruuliolder. So far as any return may be calculated on from the sale of skins, it may be said that the winter skins only are of any value, and that experiments connected with the sale have in this colony hitherto proved a failure. It is also to be borne in mind that, great as the expense is, a diminution in the number of rabbits will not very sensibly decrease it, because, though the men employed may be fewer, the wage of each or the price per skin would probably be increased owing to the lesser number of rabbits that could bo killed in a day. “The loss to the sheepovvner through decrease in the quantity and quality of wool, in the percentage of lambs and the decrease to carrying and fattening capacity, is a most serious item, affecting seriously the pastoral interest of the province. For instance, the shipment of wool from Southland proper was less bj 800 bales than it was in the previous one, though the present was a favourable season, and one case is mentioned in which the shipment had been reduced in the same time from 250 to 150 bales. Not only do the rabbit ravages affect the quantity, but they injure also the quality of the wool, for, as the young grass makes its appearance

in the spring, it is eagerly devoured by rabbits, and the ewes, with lambs following them, find themselves, when needing the most nourishment, reduced to comparative starvation. The decrease in the percentage of lambs is alarming, the average increase last year throughout the Western District—an exceptionally good one—b“ing only 20 per cent, instead of from 65 to 70. “ Equally excessive has been the effect on the carrying capacity of the run as regards stock, the reduction of stock on various runs ranging from 27. jto 69 per cent. The report points out that all this speaks of the past, It would be difficult to anticipate the future. The rapid increase of the scourge, notwithstanding the slaughter, will tell most powerfully on the old ewes and the young lambs ; on the former from the absence of the young and succulent grasses, on the latter from deficient nutriment from their mothers ; thus old ar.d young will both suffer, to say nothing of the want of stamina in the remainder of the flock.

“ The complaints of deficiency of fattening capacity on the runs, owing to the ravages of the rabbit, is also serious. In one instance, three years since, whore 2300 fat sheep and bullocks were pot off a run carrying 16,000, now it barely carries 500, and among them scarcely one lib to be killed. Not only, it appears, does the rabbit devour, but it destroys herbage by its polltions wherever it feeds, and besides devouring the young grass, they bark, and thereby seriously injure the young trees of the forest. Further, the commissioners state ‘ what wo have ourselves experienced, namely—the danger of riding rapidly across country, and what we have observed in the honey-combing of the railway embankments to an extent which, if not arrested, threatens to|be seriously injurious to the travelling public.’ “ The difficulties of exterminating the animal are almost insurmountable. At the ago of five months the animal begins to breed, and taking an estimate perfectly within bounds, it is supposed that a pair of wild rabbits, which breed no oftener than seven times in a year, would multiply in the course of four years to the am ‘.zing amount of a million and a quarter if the young were preserved. If common report be correct the climate and soil of New Zealand are peculiarly favorable to the domestic habits of rabbits, and they are said to breed at least nine months in each year, having at least six young at each kindle, and the females will breed at the age of three months. If this be true, then the problem of exterminatiou becomes very difficult of solution.

“ Unfortunately the pecnliar character of the country makes an attempt at arresting the plague almost futile, the flax, tussock, and scrub affording them comfortable warrens and a safe retreat. After having worked their way up the river flats into the interior, their most favorite haunts appear to be the heart of the various mountain ranges—forming the watershed of the rivers—in the scrub, rocks, and forests of which they find secure shelter, and issuing from which in droves, as they have seen them, they devastate the surrounding country, and reduce first-class sheep fattening land to a wilderness. “ The commissioners refer to the absence of the natural enemies of the rabbit, and to the fact that the tax on dogs and shot is almost deterrent. They also point out the serious hindrances to success in extermination which arise from the absence of unity and continuity of action on the part of runholders, the result being that the action of one is neutralised by the indifference of the other.

“The methods of destruction at present adopted consist of hunting them with dogs on the plains, and shooting them on the edges of bushes and in broken ground. Poisoning in winter has been tried, but this remedy is considered doubtful and decidedly objectionable.

“The Commissioners set forth the result of their conversations with the afflicted on the question of how to set about eradicating the evil. It is urged that as the Crown has a present as well as a continuing interest in the well-being of the pastoral country, and in view of the growing depreciation of the value of the runs, and as a stimulus to renewed exertions to rid the country of the pest, some point to a five years’ extension of their leases, others to an annual subsidy, to repayment of the duty on dogs and powder ; and others, again, to the introduction of a law which shall compel the owners or occup'ers and lessees of all land in infested districts to submit to a tax on the annual value of their property, to be raised and expended by local trustees, or by an inspector, as in the case of the existing Scab Act, under efficient Crown supervision. Stress has been laid on the necessity that this legislation, to be effective, should be compulsory, not only oa all in a proclaimed infected district, but on all portions of the country where rabbits are known to exist in greater or lesser numbers. Some again urge that when the leases run out the runs should be parcelled into smaller blocks. The expediency of introducing a certain class of the natural enemies of the rabbit has been urged, such as ferrets, stoats, and weasels—but not such as would injure lambs. The use of poisoned grain in winter has been practised, but is strongly objected to as having a tendency nob only to poison dogs, and perhaps sheep and horses, but hawks and such useful auxiliaries. The commissioners cannot recommend the establishment of curing and preserving machinery, owing to the expense of killing and skinning, &c, and the impossibility of putting a sufficient number of cleaned rabbits into the hands of the curer within twenty-four hours, owing to the nature of the country and the distance to be travelled.

“ That the rabbits are not kept down by population is reported to be apparent from the futile exertions of the farmers to protect their young crops, and this in the infancy of the plague. One farmer on the Limestone Plains, Western District, had we are informed, six men night and day to protect his barley field till the crop had grown strong enough to resist the inroads of the rabbits. He saved a large portion of it, but at a cost which must have considerably affected the return he obtained from the sale. A large farmer, living in the vicinity of Winton, informed us he -had a hard fight to get his wheat a fair start. Having had it eaten down two or three times, he tried poison with but partial success, men and dogs being unable to cope with the rabbits. And it must be remembered, rays the report, that the loss sustained by the farmers in material and labor has only been felt during the last two years, the numbers of the rabbits having very sensibly increased this year. Indeed, in all parts of the district it is universally recognised that the rabbit nuisance or, as it might be more propriately termed, plague—is only commercing.”