THE RABBIT NUISANCE.

Patea Mail, 25 August 1881, Page 4

THE RABBIT NUISANCE.

In the departmental report on Crown lands, the rabbit nuisance is thus referred to —Closely connected with the settlement of the country is the difficulty of coping with this evil. It can be kept under by poisoning, shooting, and introduction of animals, but where there is a region of broken back country the contest has to be maintained from season to season at great expense, which is mainly partially met by the sale of skins. The carrying capacity of the infested country is, of course, seriously diminished, and some of the higher lying runs have been abandoned altogether very much from this cause. This, in itself, would not be so material were it not that the abandoned country becomes the breeding ground for fresh hordes, which overrun the lower occupied country. It is manifest that any partial treatment is unequal to the suppression of an evil which now affects several millions of acres of Crown and freehold land. Rigorous concerted action is necessary, and this cannot be expected of district associations unless under the compulsion and direction of one authority. It therefore devolves on Government to possess itself of power that will require every person to keep hisgronnd clear on pain of severe penalties. This implies that the Government must clear the unoccupied Crown lands, and if these measures succeed in reducing the pest to small dimensions, as certainly they would, the expense would be far more than recouped in the increased carrying capacity of the country and the greater rentals that would be got in reletting. Increasing the number of runs and holdings will in one way tend to diminish the evil by having more persons to contend against it, but on the increase of settlers there will be still greater need for Government inspection of rabbit districts, because the neglect of two or three persons in a district to keep their ground clear would render abortive in a great measure the efforts of those who did.