RABBITS

Hokitika Guardian, 5 July 1932, Page 8

RABBITS

TRAIL OF RUIN'. -SYDNEY, June 24. In the Federal Arbitration Court the ether day someone asked who it was who introduced rabbits to Australia. N-o on e '- could supply the in formalion, but ’-a representative of the grazier: | (raid that if he were alive to-day he wae j certain that he would be murdered. Th I fact that there ar e 6,000,000 rabbit carcases in cold - storage awaiting sb-p ment from -Sydney to.. London' migh 1 suggest that the rabbit was 1 ’ doing his bit for Australia, hut the damage done by rabbits each year is far greater thru thd value of the export trade. Australia is the greatest wool and sheep country in the world| and it v also claim the honour, or 'dishonour, of running more i*abbits than all th© other countries put -together. T’ sheep and wool industries bring in millions a year, but rabbits rob' that basic industry of tens of 'thousands. They■have developed into Australia’s great es; pest. If there were no rabbits in New (South- Wales, graziers could run thousand; more-cheep than they do. jin some quarters it is asserted, that without there would be room for 10,000,000 mor 6 sheep. One of the greatest i eheep-amisers ’ said the btlior . day ' that by ridding his property o rabbits he doubled its sheep-carryieg capacity. -He (ran 20,000 sheep- - with rabbits and 40,000 without rabbits. -Years ago, it was -'stated., as the result of an experiment in Victoria, that’ ' eight rabbits eat as much grass, as one Ahoep., That estimate is generally accepted. On that basis the 6,000,000 rabbits in' cold store in Sydney \v:re sufficient to prevent 750,000 sheep -fr-m' 1 -rrowing wool and fattening. . Values for rabbits, for every other kind r! meat, are exceedingly low. The aver- • ar-e f.o.b. .price of frozen rabbit for ex--;'port; is about 4d to 4-J-d e aC h, and th? i trappers get from 2d to 2-£d .each. Thcf? (owing comparisori. • - may be .made: ; -Eight rabbits can be run where one ijvHeep is run.' As meat and fur rabbits are worth on board'ship, for ox-' tpdrE, 2s 8d to ,ss. A in -its fid , fepat, is, good,'.in wool and mutton, for :'l4s -to I6s.- '• - " ' A,-'’.- ' V Jt is not only the' grass the rabVt els' that earns it the undying enmity .of tEe igood j-stockow:ne-r.‘n r The :_ rabbit wastes as jnudh as he cats and -“fouls -; the pastures; :3t is sjiicl that cattle ' never do well Where- rabbits, are plentiful-. Fattening’ p.f *'stock certainly: a stowef, if not impossible task. When .the. feed is .short, rabbits pull it up,'.by; ithVi )'oot, and this increases the risk -.of starvation ‘.for the .stock. To-day th 6 countryside is . said .to be imote. Igrayely menaced by ~..rabbits th?n ir any period for the last 20 or 30 years., Grazie-rs are fully aiive to the pos* on. ■ but. they. soem. po.w.erfe..to .•d.o-; anything.Wave after wave of,- rabbits .ha-s been “coming in,” and still there is no -0.-Pv,, satisfactory method, of dealing with the .pest. The expense of freeing t, single property is enormous under exiting methods and , few owners can (face it.’ . .