THE RABBIT PEST IN AUSTRALIA.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1097, 26 April 1883, Page 3

THE RABBIT PEST IN AUSTRALIA.

The stock inspector of New South Wales, in a report on the rabbit pest, says : In this Colony already, tha owners of three or four stations have spent £2OOO, others up to £2OOO, and otheis sums ranging from £IOOO downwards, and I am sorry to say with generally comparatively little permanent effect. A great many of the owners in the infested country are now keeping men employed all the year round searching for and destroying rabbits. On some stations as many as 30 hands have been employed at this work at one time, on others 25, on others 20, 15, 12 and 10, accompanied by drays, teams and packs of dogs.

The rabbits have ruined many owner? in all the Colonies in which they have obtained a footing, while the amount spent in fighting the pest and Joss through their destroying pasture and crops is enormous. On one property alone (the Messrs Robertson's, of Colac) about £40,000 was laid out in clearing it of rabbits, and putting a stone wall 3ft deep in the ground round it; and other owners, also in the western districts of Victoria, with properties ot 8000, 10,000, 15,000, 20,000 and 30,000 acres, are spending annually sums varying from £IOOO to £3OOO in merely keeping the rabbits down ; while in the Wimmera district, so far as the Crown lands are concerned, it may be said that the rabbits have to a large extent taken possession of the country j for runs that one time carried 50,000 sheep do not now keep 5000. In fact, it is stated by those whose opinion is to be relied upon, that the rabbit pest has already cost Victoria between £4,000,000 and £5,000,000 sterling ; and a 3 it is still spreading there, and will, if not speedily checked, soon be all over the Colony, the amount mentioned is nothing to what the pest will ultimately cost that Colony. ___________■■