DR. FRANK CRANE’S DAILY EDITORIAL

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 108, 28 July 1927, Page 16

DR. FRANK CRANE’S DAILY EDITORIAL

A RAT ACT (Copyright, 1927 J RECENT law in England, called the “Rat Act,” makes it a fineable offence for a householder to “harbour” rats or mice. Some scientists carried on a series of experiments to determine whether rodents carry diseases to any great distance. Indestructible tags were fastened to the legs of captured rats and their migrations traced. A few months later, one was captured over 150 miles away. Others had travelled more than 50 miles during that time. The destruction of all rodents would be a step to stamping out plague. They form a sort of underground railway for the transportation of deadly disease microbes from place to place. Besides microbe-carrying proclivities, the rats and mice in the United States are credited with being the cause of over 400 million dollars loss each year. Rodents are a common enemy and with their extermination everyone would benefit. England, more thickly populated than America, is beginning to treat the problem seriously. Besides the Rat Act, it has established several rat-catching firms. One of these killed more than 60,000 rats last year. One of her scientists puts forth a new plan which he seriously says he advocates. It is to capture rats in wire traps and let all the males go and kill all the females. In a few years, he says, such a process would reduce the females until the males would all kill each other off fighting for wives. The only rat-killing proposal that attracted much attention in these broad United States was one made in a State Legislature a few years ago. It was for a State "Rat Killing Day” to be held annually. Editors all over the country gave space to the proposal. This was not because they took the Idea seriously, but because the legislator who brought up the Bill to kill the rats was named Ratt.