RABBITS-USEFUL PESTS?

Lake County Mail, Issue 40, 10 March 1948, Page 6

RABBITS-USEFUL PESTS?

This Week’s Feature .

Big Industry in Central Otago

Rabbit meat has become increasingly important as an item of export from New Zealand in these days of world-wide food shortage. « In 1946 the export of 4,270,000 frozen rabbit and hare carcases was the largest during the last 44 years. The 190 i figure was 6,234,000 carcases, but the total value then, was only £148,000 compared with the record of £220,000 in, 1946. From the monetary side, the rabbit skins, are even more valuable as an export than rabbit carcases, the 1946 value being £1,450,000. ,

In spite of their present contribution to food supplies rabbits are still essentially a pest from the point of view of the farmer in New Zealand. Rabbits oat grass that would otherwise feed sheep or cattle, and thereby reduce the carrying capacity of farms where they are abundant. In addition, in some areas the rabbit infestation is so heavy that rabbits are a direct cause of erosion. It is easy to see why .the rabbit was introduced into New Zealand. There were no iiidigenious animals that could be hunted as game, and so the rabbit and later the hate were introduced, and at first carefullly protected. There is some doubt about the date of the earliest introduction of rabbits. Some were brought out by Wellington settlers in the early 40’s, and in the South Island there were certainly rabbits in Akaroa in 1851. At that early date, both in the North Island land Banks Peninsula, the rabbits did tnot increase greatly as the heavily bushed nature of the immediately surrounding country did not encourage their spreading very much. Rapid Increase The damaging spread ot J ‘rabbits in the open pastoral country of the South Island seems to have begun from the introduction of rabbits at the Bluff in 1864., Twelve years later the whole of Southland was infested and theNorth and. Central Otago was fast approaching the same condition. In 18/6,

on one large run, where three years previously there were very few rabbits, 16 men and 120 dogs were employed' in keeping them down. More than 36,000 rabbits were killed there in one year, but the number did not appear to be diminishing. Official action against rabbits began with the passing of the Rabbit Nuis.ancc Act of 1876, which provided for inspection and compulsory destruction of rabbits. Elected rabbit boards, with powers to strike rates, and with greater compulsory powers, date from 1886. In 1884, 67 weasels and 23 stoats were" brought out by the Government and released near Lakes Wanaka and Hawera. Large numbers of ferrets were soon being bred in the country, and in 1888 the Government bought and released 3600 of them, and,another 4000 were released privately. These '■ animals did njore harm in killing native birds thdn rabbits. Fences Constructed However* the rabbit continued to ■ thrive, and as some areas were still over-run the - Government erected wire-netting fences to check their advance. One of these fences, 80 miles long, was between Canterbury and Otago, and another was the Hurunui rabbit fence which ran inland from the sea for 50 miles. These measures proved only partly successful, as the fejices were damaged by floods, and in steep couhtry by rocks rolling down the hillsides, and once a breach was made the rabbits spread into new areas. To-day there are 105 rabbit boards in operation throughout the Dominion, and they control an area of 17,000,000 acres. •*, Rabbit boards adopt' either an inspection or a killer policy. Under the inspection policy boards employ inspectors to serve notice on landowners to take effective action to destroy rabbi(ts on their land, and under the killer policythe boards themselves employ gangs of competent rabbiters.