TRAGEDAY OF LORD HOWL ISLAND.

Hokitika Guardian, 15 September 1921, Page 4

TRAGEDAY OF LORD HOWL ISLAND.

GHI.M LIGHT AGAINST RATS. SYDNEY, S'’pU'ialn.'i' 5. Latest advices received I'roiu Lord Howe Island a lieanlilul spot ill tlie I’aeilic 700 miles nortli-east from Sydney, wliere for tliree years tlie inhaliilnnts have boon almost liopele.sxly strue. (Mine against a frijtlitf ill plaeiie of rats - -indkote til tit a thick eovart has heeil r eocnt cleared away, and over 12.00(1 rats killed. It is now Imped that it will ho possible to get the pest under control. Lord llowo Island, which ,'s a dependency of Now Smith Males, lias been a European settlement nearly as long ns Australia itself, and it has become I Simons for general reasons. Tt was the plac" where William Charles Wentworth. the famous patriot and statesman wlm framed Australia's first constitution spent his boyhood ; it is a verv a green file place to visit; end d produces a particular kind of table pal e which has been rni ; "h sought alter al! over the world. Hut three years ago a steamer was wrecked off the island, and from it there escaped a swarm of i-ats. These multiplied with ineredihl.. raeiditv. and they have tlircutercd tn make life there impossible fie everv lie imr el'c;'fr,”e s,ave tbein-elvox. IL",' have checked the hr,•cling of bird- bv devouring I heir eggs; llie,- bar, eho'a , 'l ami ruined mncli \-.almihlc valmsecd ; , i,..v love -I l ion-lv n.Teeteil .-nil iv.ai ion (rail i' nlu'-lv of fruit i on lie- ish'iet • and l.ctuccii i,lull's they have eaicn largely of -hell snails. The dense undue of toe iimlergi'"" t h lias rendered the extirpation of the rodents an ex-

ceedingly difficult matter, lull tlm l-rob hail ha- La'll ia- khal del • a''iiinedly '■illi the result lliat the plucky island ers begin to .-ee ihe end of iheir troit hies in sight.