RABBITS MUST BE SLAIN.

Taihape Daily Times, 13 August 1919, Page 5

RABBITS MUST BE SLAIN.

A CASE IN COURT. FARNIER GIVEN STRAIGHT ,: WARNING. The farmer knows the rabbit to be a nuisance and a pest, but it will interest him to know that the law of -the land looks to him to do everything in his power to destroy the furry little animals that grow and multiply and over-run land far faster than weeds ever could do. Mr F. K. Hunt, S.M., sitting in the Magistrates’ Court at Waiuku on Friday last, made some rr-marks after the hearing of a rabbit case that go to show that ‘the law does not look with the eye of favour upon the farmer who neglects to com’ply with the strict. provisions of the Rabbit Niiisancc Act, 1908, and the Babtbit Nuisance Amendment ‘Act of last year. The case was brought under the provisions of this law by Mr F. H. Brittain, Inspector ‘of Stock, against John Dickey, farmer, of Kohe Kohe, for failing to take steps to destroy the rabbits that abound on his property after receiving the usual formal notices to do so.

After 3on\'i‘cting.Dickey and fining lhim £5 with costs, the magistrate étold him he was liable to a penalty ’of a hundred pounds for the breach ‘But the Court had taken into consid-,<_-iation the fact that he was an-old imam, and it appeared that since the l.l.llfOl‘lllatiOfl was laid Dickey had done fésbiiie Work in the direction of des!t'oying the rabbits, so he was “let off !lightly.” The fine would be £5 gcnly, on the condition that defendant iwould take steps to the satisfaction of the ills;peC"rol' to have the pests [c?_istroyed_. failing which the inspector .s!:ou1d lay auothor information against ‘him and he would be mtllctc-(1 of the {hill hund:-ed pound p<.‘llaltY-

Ml‘ I-luzlt also remarked that if D.'ckcy hc-Id property and would not take steps to eradicate pests, EHS had b<tfcr sell the land or else put it unCm this nc-ce.°sa.ry work. “People must

‘..;1:«'io:-st.nnd that the law says Very C9-_jlli‘rvl_\.' tl-at-tho>'o rabbits must be Jesi-rc_v.;-.1, and it puts the onus on the owners to eradicate them.” The old farmor’;< :<nn.in—law promis» ml ‘to undertake the work of dc-struc-tion to fin, satisfaction of the inspec-‘(C-r