LORD HOWE ISLANDERS

Hokitika Guardian, 26 March 1921, Page 2

LORD HOWE ISLANDERS

THREATENED BY PLAGUE OF RATS SYDNEY, March lf>. Some four hundred odd miles from this coast lies the peaceful community of Lord Howe Island, first colonised in 1853 by «• party of Maoris, and now the home of about one hundred Europeans, who live on their own fertile farms and supply their simple needs by exporting the seeds of ornamental Kentia palm. The island is a dependency of New South Wales. Until now it has never given the Chief Secretary’s Department any worry. It is a most charming spot, with a mild climate and a most luxuriant vegetation. Some few years ago, a storm battered ship limped up to the island, and, being in practically a sinking condition, was run ashore. No one thought anything about it at the time, but it was afterwards remembered that the ship had rats aboard, and these pests escaped ashore. Lord Howe, up to then, had no rats. There is no berthing place there for ships, which have to lie out in the bay.

The newcomers found the island a veritable rat paradise, and they mult plied at a most amazing rate. In t’ few years that have since elapsed, they have practically taken possession of the island. Formerly, without interferronoe from any pest, the people garnered bounteous crops of grain, fuit, and vegetables. To-day, their crops are being almost wholly destroyed by the rats. The position is so serious that the community has urgently applied to tine Government for relief, declaring that the pest must either be checked or the people will be driven off th e island. A most serious feature of the case is that- the rats have found the K*ntia palm seeds a pleasing food. They are attacking the seeds everywhere, and they threaten not only to wipe out the unique industry, but, to wipe out the Keittia palms as "4011. 'Hie Government is giving the matter attention, and a party will probably be sent down to the island to see what can be done.