Imported Vermin.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 196, 26 March 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

Imported Vermin.

Some time ago we had an article strongly condemning the introduction of pestilent vermin into the colony as a means of combating the rabbit nuisance. We expressed the opinion that it is always a great mistake to acclimatize any kind of acknowledged peat in the country simply because it is a natural enemy to another pest already here. The practical result generally is to inflict upon ourselves another nuisance, which is either added to the number of those \\« already suffer from, or at best .•-imply substitutes a new evil, and perhaps woise one, for the one it rids us of. Our remarks were specially directed again&t the introduction of stoatts and w easels, which in other countries are wellknown to be moat mischievous vermin. Wo have always felt somewhat dubious also about the wisdom of turning ferrets loose in a country like New Zealand, where the genial climate and large areas of unoccupied country would give them every opportunity to increase and multiply beyond our powers of rcpi ession. Wo knew they weresavago and ferocious little beasts, which if they became numerous would probably become a seiious nuisance to country settlers through their tlepicdations in poultry yards It never occurred to up, however, that they would be dangerous to human beings. But lec^ntly we ha>6 all being shocked by the horrible account of a poor little child having been attacked by a ferret which had escaptd fiom a cnye. A mother had left her one ) tar old baby L'irl on the kitche-i floor for a few mmutt-> 'while she went out into the- yaid alj.mt seme domestic work Heaiing-nddon vcicuib bite quickly returned, and w.is honihed to Had a feriet teaiin^ with teeth and claws at l>er little one* 'aco llasing driven it Pit' the found that the savage little animal had almo-t t .in one of tho child s eyes out. It was for some time feared that the I aliy was not only disfigured but blinded for life, bur happily we have s>inre lea. i' L that the 'i'_;ht h ..« been saved. Hut wh it ni ; t;hi not have been the u-sult of the atliw k U the mother had happened to h:r. c gnu* beyond healing of the child « ciie 1 ? Ir, Mich ca-e it is more than piobable tht fenet would have woiried the i oor little mfanb to doath. It may bo paid thai after all it was only an accident thai tht fa let got lioae; but if the conniiy be came stocked with ferrets in a wild sra'< would there not be dang- r of theii ittaoking small ehildicn wandciiug abuui aputially cleared holding, ptMhaj l'c\ ond it'.tchoMielp? Why, onlyncoup'oof uei.Ls <;( a Mi> Finch of Alexandia, Waikato, wa- a( tacked b\ an escaped fciictiu her own liout* and much frighlene J ; and if tlie vermin :iu bokl enough thus to attack grown people, .small childt en would certainly inn f-eiiou-:is-ks it unwittingly they should happen to .-tray alone near a ferret's ne-t. Woa-eN establish themselves in certain spes in gieat munbers, forming breeding oamp^ alir were, and if disturbed do not. hesita c to make a combined attack upon 'he intrud' % i. There are well authenticated ca-cs of g\o\\ u men having been thus set upon by a s\v .mi ot wea»e's, and escaping from senna.- iujui^ with considerable difficulty. We may bo jiccused of undue fussine-ia in this matter, but we feel suro that if no steps are inktn to htop the evil at once colonists w ill rue the day the first shipment of imported vermin were recklessly turned loose to infest a country hitherto notably free from all sue!) plagues.