ROTORUA NEWS

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 112, 2 August 1927, Page 12

ROTORUA NEWS

RAVAGES BY STOATS Very disquieting reports come from the Wairoa Valley of the ravages of stoats and weasels. The pest is assuming epidemic proportions, and nothing that comes within scope of attack seems immune. Over a dozen lambs have been found dead, examination disclosing small incisions in the throat which could only have been inflicted by creatures of the weasel species. Fowlruns, no matter how carefully protected, suffer severely the enemy burrowing beneath the close-mesh wire netting sunk into the ground, which it was believed would prove an effective barrier. Kiwis, which formerly were plentiful in the Wairoa district, are now extinct, and New Zealand is rapidly losing a unique and interesting bird, indigenous only to these islands. Settlers in the valley tell not only of the destructiveness of the stoat and weasel, but of their rapid and extensive dispersion, migrating in large and determined bands from place to place. They are now found in the loneliest and least accessible bush country, a circumstance that points to the certain extermination of all flightless birds, or birds that breed only on the ground. The theory that the stoat is the rabbit’s most relentless enemy no longer holds good; the former is not infrequently seen playing in the presence of rabbits, the latter holding no attraction if birds are available. Clear and beautiful weather obtains at the moment, and traffic is rapidly becoming normal. The acuteness of the unemployed problem is reflected by the large number of men who pass through Pwotorua carrving swags. In their search for work some of them are said to perform almost incredible distances, encircling on foot almost the av nole of the North Island. A favourite itinerarv is from 'Wellington to Auckland via the West Coast, the return journey being accomplished via Rotorua. Wliakatanc, and Napier.