Gawd ! they've all gone rotten."

Manawatu Herald, 29 July 1893, Page 3

Gawd ! they've all gone rotten."

Mr Coleman Phillip3 is evidently ! deeply interested in the rabbit question and has indulged in deep re* search as to the history of this very interesting little creature. He asserts that a thousand years before Christ the inhabitants of Phoenicia traded down to Spain (Tarshiah) for . ferrets, then called Tarshish cats. [ The Biblical people evidently saw the great beauty and utility of tame ferrets and nets. In the year I A.D. the inhabitants of the Balearic Isles petitioned the Roman Emperor to suppress the rabbit-pest, and two legions of the Roman army were sent to put it down. We do not know whether this was said as a suggestion as to how our Permanent Militia might be usefully employed. Rabbits have always, it would seem, been a nuisance, as previous to the year One, Aristottle relates that burning sulphur on hot coals at the mouths of burrows was tried, but, Mr Phillips says, did not succeed very well. Tbe same gentleman asserts there is no rabbit-pest in Africa, though it is the original homo of the rabbit and ferret. In India, China, and the whole of Asia there has been no rabbit pest, though Africa is connected with them by a narrow isthmus. .From this he argues that the natural enemy followed upon the track of the rabbit and kept an equal balance of prey upon prey.