WAR ON RATS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 140, 18 March 1909, Page 4

WAR ON RATS.

The society for the destruction of rats recently formed in England, under the presidency of the well known physician, Sir James Crichton-Browne, is copied from a Danish organisation. Zuschlag, the Danish civil enigneer, is the author, chief apostle, and undisputed "generalissimo" of the world's | crusade against the rat. Zuschlag published a book: "The Rat and Civilisation." It contained a terrible indictment of the brown rat, and gradually brought about a radical change in public opinion. For Zuschlag had proved by overwhelming evidence that the rat fulfils no useful function, that each rat costs at the lowest estimate one farthing a day "to keep," and as there were at least as many rats in Denmark as people, the needless loss in food alone -to say nothing of the material destroyed by them—would in one year amount to some £400,000 He further showed conclusively that the rat is the chief agent in spreading trichinosis — a disease little known in England, but a very real danger in Denmark — and with rare intuition he was that the rat is also primarily responsible for the fearful ravages of the bubonic plague in India and other countries within the plague belt, because it forms the vehicle by which the plague flea is transferred from a plague stricken native to a healthy one. These were in effect Zuscblag's arguments, and they proved forcible enough to convert gradually the whole of Denmark to his views. A private Bill was brought in Parliament, but shelved for political reasons. When, however, a new Cabinet had come into office the Home Secretary brought in a measure which quickly parsed both Houses, and came into force on the first of last July. It provides for the payment of a premium of not less than a halfpenny, and not more than a penny, according to the districts, for each rat handed in, the money to be supplied by the State a grant of £1,400 per annum, and by a levy to be made by the local authorities at the rate of three shillings per annum for each hundred inhabitants. It is interesting to note that the Rat Law has, so far, been an unqualified success. The premium system has enlisted the services of the poorer classes of the Danes, as Zuschlag predicted that it would, and consideration of the public weal has secured the enthusiastic sup port of other classes. At the depots in the towns huge bags are banded in every day, and the travelling depots inthe rural districts report similar successes. Men, women, and children all come with their booty, which has. been sect red by trapping, shooting, poisoning, by ferret, dog, or cat, and not infrequently by a well directed half-brick. On haif-holidays it is no unusual sight to see a party of clerks marching out to a rat-shooting expedition, followed by a few men and boys, who gather up the rats that have been slain "by Act of Parliament," to exchange them afterwards at the depots for coin for the realm. When a rat is given up, its tail is cut off and carcase and tail are put into separate airtight receptacles. Each night the tails, which serve as a receipt and check, are counted and then burned with the carcase at the local gasworks. In the villages they are buried under the supervision of the local health authority.