THE RABBIT PEST.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Volume 2, Issue 66, 4 January 1879, Page 3

THE RABBIT PEST.

The Victorian Minister for Lands who I has just returned froni 11 t »ur in tin: north-western district of Victoria, expre sea himself astonished at th • uii liner in which the rabbits havu increase<l and the serious damage whioh they nre committing on the farms. Accordiug to the Australasian, ho says that it L, nest to impossible for any one who has not been in the locality to conceive how these animals have multiplied in the region between the malle scrub and Churlton.J They are there in countless myriads, ami it has become an urgent question whether fanners or bunnies are in future to appropriate that portion of, the country. Some settlers have been all but impoverished by the plague, and all fear thut, unless prompt mid energetic steps aro taken t<. stamp a out, they will Lave t., leave the district. Many of them are keeping the rabbits down on their own lands, hut other persons will not do the sain,' and there arc Crown lands on which no effort is made to mitigate the nuisance. When the grass gets scarce they invade the crops, and they have been known to sweep oil' SOO acres of wheat in a week. 'J hero aro ;i few trappers doing a little work, but the low priee obtainable for the skins prevents the growth of that industry; and the rabbits are too poor to tempt any one to start a meat-preserving establishment in connection with them.