PETS OR PESTS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 26, 1 February 1915, Page 5

PETS OR PESTS.

RABBITS AT WH ANCAMOMONA. It is not true that all “Whanga” ' had rabbit pie for dinner yesterday, despite the fact that on Saturday a slaughter of all the pet “bunnies” had taken place under the business-like eye of the Government Inspector in these matters. On the principle that ( prevention is better than cure, for some time past there has been a movement on foot to secure the destruction of the rabbits being kept in hutches in the township, and Inspector Wuson’s visit was the outcome of representations by the local authorities. At one residence, it is stated, the owner prided himself on having as many as twenty-five of these pe(s)ts, from which statement it will lie gathered that he could never have lived in Otago, where Brer Rabbit lies low and says miffin’, all the while living on the best in the land among the cereals and root crops. Settlers down there talk of thousands in estimating the annual loss to the country, and yet the rabbit business is quite an industry in itself. Now, however, the whirligig of time and the war has brought forth a demand from Otagoans that the wanton destruction of . the rabbit be suspended and that as a household commodity—his flesh being good to eat and by some considered a delicacy—in these days of high prices and famine and war-strickcn peoples, the export trade should be developed to its utmost capacity. Still. Whanga is well rid of tho rabbit. Settlers may not be aware of the seriousness of the mat-V'r, as, according to the Rabbit Act, anyone allowing rabbits to be let loose is liable to a fine of £SO, or twelve months’ imprisonment.