RABBIT PEST

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26631, 29 November 1947, Page 6

RABBIT PEST

SERIOUS DEPREDATIONS LOSS TO SHEEP INDUSTRY " FARMING " PRINCIPLE CONDEMNED Special Correspondent WELLINGTON, Nov. 28. “ Rabbit farming,” which in the Otago Province in particular has yielded good returns in recent years, was condemned in evidence before the Royal Commission on the Sheep Industry by Mr G. F. Yerex, Controller of the Wild Life Division of the Department of Internal Affairs. Rabbits, which were named as one of the chief enemies of the sheepfarmer, could not be controlled in New Zealand until trapping was placed on a non-commercial basis and co-ordin-ated on a national scale, said Mr Yerex. Mr Yerex said that “ rabbit farming ” where the pests were simply “ creamed off ” and then left to multiply for the next winter when the price for skins was higher, would have to be fought as relentlessly as the practice of deer farming, which had been found in the back country. Deer farming, he said, had been found where runholders gave exclusive shooting rights to one or two men. It was on these runs that the greatest number of deer was found. This situation was, however, now under control. The new provisions for the campaign against rabbits where a central council had powers overriding those of local boards, might be the answer to the problem of organisation on a national scale, with necessary safeguards for district autonomy. Mr K. A. Wodzicki, a zoologist inquiring into wild life for the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, said that present methods of eradication of the rabbit pest were inadequate, and there was need for a great deal more research. In 1945 20,619,000 rabbits were destroyed, and their total export value was £1,328,644. These rabbits displaced 1,375,000 sheep, which, on a conservative estimate, would have yielded produce worth £1,365,000. The cost of the present rabbit pest control in the South Island was £106,606 a year, said Mr Wodzicki. Rabbit control would need to cover the whole country to be really effective.

Mr Wodzicki will give evidence later on methods of rabbit control.