STOATS AND WEASELS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3953, 8 June 1929, Page 3

STOATS AND WEASELS.

RABBIT BOARDS OBJECT TO THEIR EXTERMINATION. At the conference .of delegates of the North Island Rabbit Boards’ Association, held at Feilding on Wednesday, Mi’- B. G. Gower proposed that, before any interference with the existing section of the Rabbit Nuisance Act, 1928, affecting the protection of stoats and weasels is undertaken, all Rabbit Boards be consulted in the -matter. Air. Gower said the natural enemy of the rabbit had work to do, and lie did not think tbe country could do without the stoat and the weasel. Air. Bailees said the Acclimatisation .Societies were asking for the extermination of the stoats, because these animals were supposed to attack the birds. His expei'ience was that the -stoat did not do much harm to poultry, and they could easily be caught, if they came near a, poultry yard. Air. Claude Smith said he had been informed by an expert that stoats would not touch rabbits while they could get at birds, and he thought wild cats would do more towards killing out rabbits than stoats did. He Would vote against the remit. Air. Cross said in a certain part of his district where the rabbits had been very mulch reduced, the natural enemy kept them under, but where the rabbit® were numerous, the stoats would ,not kill them out. The remit was carried. Air. Smith proposed that the restriction on the destruction of stoats and weasels he lifted. Discussing the remit, Mr. Wright said the Department of Agriculture was against -any (proposal to des-. tro\ the natural enemy of the rabbit. They found that where the rabbits had been reduced to a minimum, the natural enemy kept tlielm down. Air. Wright added that the natural enemy was doing no damage in the districts where they were keeping the rabbits down. The President said the Boards wanted the help of every means to Ikeep the rabbits down. The remit was lost.