Auckland’s Pied Piper

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1052, 16 August 1930, Page 8

Auckland’s Pied Piper

RAT CATCHING ON WHARVES

ROUND about the 'wharves there is a mail who pursues a strange* occupation. It is liis task to wage war on the I’at population of ships which bring contingents of the pests as fast as lie can eliminate them. This modern Fied Piper is performing notable service, for, although he will neVer get rid of the vermin, he certainly does keep them within bounds, which is good for the health of us all.

The Harbour Board's rat-catcher causes the death of an average of 165 rodents a month by means of traps alone. To this list must be added a large number of unknown deaths resulting from poison. It is a specialised job, this rat eradication, and one which calls for infinite patience and an intimate study of rat psychology. The vermin seem to possess a cunning born of the despair of existence, a conj tinual wariness which whets that j sense almost to human intelligence. And to “smell a rat and nip him in the bud,” as grammarian Nesfield makes the muddled politician say, the ratcatcher must go one better in native cunning than his disagreeable quarry itself. “We shall never get rid of the rats from our wharves,” said Mr W. R. Golden, traffic manager to the Harbour Board, in discussing how the board controls the pest. “You can say this, that the work has to go on 365 days a year. It is not only the rats that come from the ships that we have to fight; for there is a continual migration from the City to the waterfront. We have no regular rat population. however, because all our sheds and wharves are of steel or concrete, but we always seem to have a big stock on hand. It appears that it is necessarily so, because all the big ports of the world are tackling the problem, yet rats will never be entirely got rid of.” Mr. Golden said that in proportion to the tonnage of ships using the port, the Auckland Harbour Board’s ratcatcher killed as many rats as the Port of Loudon Authority’s men. The only way to check the vermin was to keep them on the move. No colonies were allowed to establish themselves, and although the rats bred rapidly, they were hunted and hounded continually. The board’s rat-catcher, who was a man who took a keen interest in his task—a half-hearted official being unable to cope with the job —found that in setting traps the old hands got very shrewd. The thing then was to make frequent changes of bait. This was a scientific business. For example, when a cargo of grain had lain in port for some time and

the rats had been gorging on a dry diet, it was no use offering them a piece of biscuit, cheese or other more or less "dry tack.” On the other hand, the catcher was often successful with

j a piece of apple, or a lettuce leaf sprinkled with water, or even a date. “You can catch the young and unsophisticated with almost anything if your humour them a little,” remarked Mr. Golden, “but some of the old campaigners—with half their tail 3 off — are very cunning and know all about traps. Occasionally one falls for a particularly enticing bait, but poison is the best way to get rid of them.” Traps had to be kept scrupulously j clean and free from blood-stains, said Mr. Golden, because the rats were shy and suspicious. Mice were practically no trouble, being easily kept down. Asked if the disc rat-guards seen on ship’s mooring ropes were effective, Mr. Golden said they undoubtedly prevented the disembarkation of most rats brought from overseas. But rats were cunning even in their method of com ing ashore. They “stowed away” in crates and cases in the holds and j when cargo was being slung,on to the j wharves rats had been seen jumping out and scurrying for shelter. Samples of the vermin caught were j taken daily to the Health Department, ; which was very strict about examina- j tion of the bodies for sign of disease. There had been no indication of : bubonic plague (rates being noted carriers) for many years. There had been j a plague scare in pre-war days, but nothing positive had been detected. , Mr. Golden expressed the opinion that Auckland Was most unlikely to suffer ; an outbreak of bubonic plague as the result of a visit of any ship to this port, because vessels arriving from the East and parts of the world where plague exists come via other ports, j where the rodents were rooted out or killed in fumigation. It was not what rats ate that caused their unpopularity, or even the remote possibility of their bringing plague to j Auckland, but they were so enor- j mously destrictive. It seemed that in ! their waking hours it was instinctive ! that they should bite and gnaw every-1 thing in reach and immense damage was done annually to cargoes. Somebody writing about rat-catch-ing at the London docks has parodied William Blake to describe the catcher's warfare with the rat popu-

lation. It is this: “I will not cease from active fight Nor shall the trap rust in my hand Till I have cleared the rodent tribe from every shed throughout dockland. « C.W.