The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. SATURDAY, MAY 15, 1920. FARMERS MUST CO-OPERATE.

Southland Times, Issue 18822, 15 May 1920, Page 4

The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. SATURDAY, MAY 15, 1920. FARMERS MUST CO-OPERATE.

Recently a well-known Poverty Bay Pastoralist, Mr E. M. t Hutchinson, visited Southland and his horror-stricken remarks about the prevalence of rabbits in this province should bo taken to heart. It is no new thing in Southland to talk about the rabbit pest, but the astonishment of a North- Island farmer at the condition of things in this part of the dominion should bo enough to make farmers turn earnestly to the work of dealing with Mr Bunny. It is abundantly clear that the new Minister of Agriculture is going to devote his energies to the eradication of the rabbit, if it is humanly possible, and Southlandcrs who arc really anxiods to see the country-side clean should seize the opportunity afforded by his coming visit to acquaint the minister with the full facts of the situation and to secure his assistance. Mr Hutchinson can speak with authority on the rabbit pest and the possibilities of keeping it under. He is chairman of the East Coast (Poverty Buy) Rabbit Board, and it is recorded of him that when one of the inspectors reported one month that “he could find no trace of rabbits,” but that a “rabbit had been reported as being seen,” he despatched the inspector many miles to the spot where this bunny had been “seen” in order to “scotch” him. It is not difficult to appreciate the feelings of Mr Hutchinson therefore when he saw rabbits “shot from a motor-car moving on a main road,” and met them within “a couple of miles of Invercargill.” We quote these remarks not because they convey any information to fanners in this part of New Zealand, but because they reveal the opinion that northern farmers must have of the man on the land in this province. Mr Hutchinson added that poisoning was irregular and was not carried on as part of any concerted movement and in that statement he has touched the root of the matter. For some

time when rabbit-skins were commanding a high figure, bunny was busily hunted and in some quarters he seemed to have been exterminated, but the recent set-back in the rabbit-skin market has altered this and the pest has returned. It is obvious, too, that the Department of Agriculture has good grounds for suspecting that in places the rabbit is being ‘’farmed” as being more profitable than sheep. There is, of course, no reason why, in ordinary circumstances, a farmer should not take up the production of rabbits, so long as he can keep them away from the properties of neighbours who do not wish to be subjected to their costly attentions; but the restriction of the pest to any one property has been found to be impossible, and under the present circumstances any farmer who neglects to do his utmost towards freeing Southland of them is lacking in commonsense and true agricultural instinct. As Mr Hutchinson stated the whole trouble is that there is an almost entire lack of cooperation amongst farmers. One man, eager to keep these hungry parasites from cutting down his food reserves, will go about energetically poisoning and harrying the rabbits with dogs and gun, until at last he is able to regard his property as clean. Bub he has merely driven them from his farm to his neighbour’s, or, if a district is at work, from one area to another. If he relaxes his efforts later ho finds that his farm is as badly infected as over. Naturally ho burns with exceeding wrath at this state of affairs, and he probably realises that unless the whole province goes systematically and energetically into the matter it is impossible to hope for any relief. It has been stated that four rabbits will eat as much feed as one sheep, and some farmers have even higher opinions of bunny's appetite and this fact, coupled with the rapidity with which they increase, makes them a heavy tax upon the land, an annual and ever-increasing tax. We know that some farmers look lightly upon this subject, but we are afraid that they have not considered the actual facts of the pest. Wo know, too, that more than one farmer after struggling hard in a lone-handed fight has lost heart, and contented himself, as he has seen his neighbours do, with regarding the rabbit as a plague that must be borne with as much patience as possible. Out of this feeling grows the argument that the eradication of the rabbit is impossible. A little consideration of the subject, however, will alter that view. By spasmodic action eradication is certainly impossible, but the way to success lies along ether paths, which may be followed voluntarily or by compulsion. The Southland Farmers’ Union has several times of late referred to the problem; but it is obvious that the Farmers’ Union alone cannot cope with the matter. Nothing less than a provincialwide movement, backed by the great majority of the farmers, can hope to grapple with the pest and wipe it out. The power? of the Rabbit Inspectors were subjected to some criticism by a deputation to Mr Nosworthy the other day, but the almost Czarlike authority that they have is the result not of any desire by the department to unduly harry farmers, but of the disinclination of farmers to do their part, and we are pleased that the Minister is determined to look into the matter himself before ho thinks of weakening the legislative encouragement given to the campaign against the scourge. We have small doubt that when Mr Nosworthy comes to Otago and Southland he will be almost as astonished as Mr Hutchinson wap, at the bold that the rabbit has got, but he should not be dismayed. If ho can spur the fanners into activity, if he is prepared to give practical aid to the development of some concerted offensive against the pest a great deal can be done, and farmers, even those who now pretend that rabbit-culture is better than breeding sheep, will soon bless the name of the man who cleared the country of a heavy burden.