A European Rabbit Exte.minator {From "New Zealand Farmer.")

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 224, 15 October 1887, Page 2

A European Rabbit Exte.minator {From "New Zealand Farmer.")

Some time ago wo described an apparatus invented by Mr George Williams, o£ Auckland, called the "Rabbit Exterminator,"" Mr Williams's idea was co catch the rabbits alive by means of his system or taapping, them, and then by the freezing process export them in large quantities to the old country, to feed the half starved millions of London and other great English townsHe argued that in this way the irrepressible rodent might become almost as important a source of income to the colonial run-holder as the sheep themselves. However this may be it has often occurred to us that in the ordinary methods adopted for destroying rabbits, such as poisoned grain, thousands of pounds worth of good food for human beings was being wasted. The annual consumption of rabbits in London by certain classes of the population must be something enormous, and with th© present refrigerating appliances it certainly seems feasible to use this great army of rabbit consumers to lessen the hordes oS this pest which afflict the New Zealand pasfcoralist, and at the same time derive some pecuniary return for the cos>t of its destruction. In a recent issue of the English Shooting Times, there is an article upon " Rabbits in Australia/ 3 ' and after referring; to the fact that ib has cost the New South Wales Government Hid per rabbit to kill 7,853,787 rabbits, without reckoning tha bonuses paid by squatters and others, the conclusion is arrived at that each rabbit) killed costs Is 3d. "In other words, it costfr as much, or more, to kill a rabbit in Australia as to buy one in England. Of course," continues the article, "the rabbit will ultimately have to succumb in the life and death warfare now being waged against it) — but when ? Not for many generations, we fear. Whilst Australian rabbits, remain a terror to the squatter and farmer, the price of the animal is growing higher in every capital of Europe. In the moredensely populated parts of London, for instance, a rabbit cannot be purchased for less than Is 7cl or Is Bd, or over 3s a. couple, and in Paris to obtain two ' lapins ' for 5 francs is considered cheap. As a daily paper justly remarks, the lower classes suffer in consequence of these inflated prices. Rabbit pie is deservedly popular in both capitals, and, pertinently I asks our English contemporary, " can nothing be done to bring the swarming devastating legions of Australian rabbits and the 'red lane' of English throate together? It would be easy for an enterprising speculator, who entered into the business on a large scale to put), dead rabbits on board ships in Melbourno, Adelaide, and Sydney at 3d a head. If 2d more — a large estimate — were charged for transportation and for storage, in a refrigerated room, the Australian rabbit could be laid down at 8d a (head in the heart of this metropolis. For, rabbits, at Is apieco the demand in these islands is simply illimitable. If once this trade were, established on a large scale, and conducted by practical men, it would give employ^ ment to thousands of hands, it would be a .priceless boon to England and If ranee ; and, finally, it might in a few years' time* knock' holes in the swarming armies of a quadruped which is inflicting untold injury; uppn the Australian colonies."

The streets of Canton are only three, or four ieob wide; and when a wofn'an with 1 a bustle on gets into one of them she has to. go clear through before she can turn, around.