Australia's Cats.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 20 November 1914, Page 4

Australia's Cats.

>■ The Australians imported rabbits to givo themselves the pleasure of hunting them, and also to furnish a new product for their estates. As is well known, this plan did not work out well ; the rabbits multiplied rapidly owing to" the wellknown fecundity of the species ; they have consumed pasturage and crops in siii'h a degree that they have become a pest, destroying the food supplies intended for ihe herds. Kvery possible means has been employed to get rid of them : prizes of immen.se value have been offered to whoever would furnish a. means of exterminating this prolific race. Nothing has succeeded, and breeders are oblige.! to live side by side with the enemies that they themselves introduced into their land. Now it is cats that are ghing trouble. These animals have often left their owtiers" houses, either voluntarily or because they were driven out, and have founded new families in the bush. In some cases breeders have established cats on their estates in the iH'iH; i".,.^, they could make war on the hated rabbit.'" Unfortunately, the descendants of these donr-s----lic eats, completely abandoned to their instincts, have returned to the wild .slate to such, a degree that their type lias altered ; the.v have ! become, larger, stronger, and inert1 ferocious than their ancestors. As they lind in Australia no enemy of their race, they have multiplied, their forces have gained ground, and they are infesting the whole country. They hunt all sorts of small creatures—lizards, opossums, and even young lambs. It has, therefore, been decided to make an end of them—if that bo possible,*