THE SHEEP AND RABBIT ACTS.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 7, Issue 400, 14 October 1884, Page 5

THE SHEEP AND RABBIT ACTS.

The ' Otago Daily Times ' -understands that the following is the substance of the report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Sheep and liabbit Acts : — In reference to the Sheep Act, the Committee strongly urge the importance of impartiality and strictly enforcing the provisions of the Act, which on the whole appears to meet existing requirements. The Committee express the opinion that the Government should remove from their employment those oliicers who, by the results of the past, have proved themselves incapable of stamping out scab in the districts under their charge, and point out that the remission of fines has not led to greater efforts on the part of offenders to clean their sheep, but, on the other hand, has decidedly discouraged the officers in their attempts to carry out their duty. The Committee point out that a serious loss accrues to the Colony from the existence of scab, because it virtually prohibits the export of sheep to Australia, where there is a larg<j demand at good prices. In regard to the Rabbit Act, the Committee consider that it has on the whole been fairly successful in the Middle Island, where rabbits are more numerous than in any other part of New Zealand. The most serious difficulty to contend with is the great extent of unoccupied lands (Crown lands and reserves), which afford breeding grounds from which all the adjoining country is again stocked. The Committee strongly _ urge on the Government the desirability of taking immediate steps to provide for the occupation of these lands on such terms as would lead to the extermination of the rabbit pest. In regard to the complaints of arbitrary action on the part of some of the inspectors, the Committee is of opinion that the grounds of complaint lie with the officers rather than with the Act itself, and urge that great care should be exercised in the selection of the former. They also dwelJ on the importances of adopting something like uniformity in the methods used for the extermination of rabbits.