BRER RABBIT.

Hokitika Guardian, 25 February 1920, Page 1

BRER RABBIT.

The rabbit, aot, long ago regarded solely as a curse to farmer and pastoraiist alike, lias in the past year or two developed into a source of wealtji to an extent once not dreamed of. Ibis is the case in Australia, and to a lesser degree in New Zealand also. The rabbit itself is still negligible, except to a certain extent, as an article of food; it is its coat that gives it value to-day. There is a world-wide demand for furs, coupled with tli<j total cessation, of l'ur exports from Russia, and these two circumstancps, combine to. give rabbitskins an unprecedented value —not always, it is to be feared as such, for rabbit fur it is said, in tbe skilfully .camouflaged guise of many a more aristocratic fur. The extent to which it is employed, either as plain rabbit or disguised as sable, seal, and other expensive furs, may be judged that at one of the great fur sales now taking place at St. Louis, U.S.A., the entries included Vvo,ooib of Australian and 200,000 of, New. Zealand rabbit skins. Tim result of this demand for rabbit fur has been tp ipake topping one of tbe most lucrative of, country occupa-

tions. One hears of rabbiters in New Zealand making as much as £2O or £25 a week, and in Australia the latter figure is not at all uncommon. To earn it a man has to trap 500 rabbits a week, a task which any fair trapper could do, and sell the skins at a skilling each—and one Sydney buyer a week or two ago paid eighteenpence each for 7,000 skins, while in the winter, when skins are in better condition, men in the trade expect them to reach half a crown each. With such money to be made at trapping, it is little wonder that the farmer finds it difficult to get labour for harvesting or any other farm work, and landholders in districts thereby infested with rabbits are wondering what they will do if the rabbit boom keeps up. There is no silver lining to their cloud, for they get nothing; from the rabbits, and they have not even the consolation that their land is being cleared of the pest fot there is general agreement that a. certain amount of thinning out does nothing towards eradicating tho rabbits, but really keeps them going bealtliy and strong, just as a certain amount of netting tends to improve the fishing ir a trout river.