THE RABBIT NUISANCE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1131, 7 August 1883, Page 3

THE RABBIT NUISANCE.

In our lust issue we published a letter written by Mr C. de V. Teachetnaker on the above subject, wherein he stated that, in order not to weary his readers, he would leave over his remarks as to remedies for another letter. The following is the letter referred to:— Sir,— ln a paper I lately sent vou I endeavored to show that we suffered, directly and indirectly, an annual loss of £1.700,000 from the Rabbit Nuisance. A careful consideration of the vaiious items o ! loss enumerated in my ray last paper will, 1 think, make it abundantly clear that the losses occasioned by the rabbit alone to Now Zealand, from 1874 to 18 c 4. will have reached the enormous sum of Ten Millions. It has been said to ms that the evil exists, and will only he troublesome, on

the outskirts of civilisation. To anyone living in a town, the outskirts seem very remote ; to those living in the country, the outskirts are very near. It must also be lememherecl that New Zealand consists principally of the outskirts of civilisation unci the country beyond also said that this state of things is very bad for the squatter, and I think that these are the views generally taken ; but it must be admitted that, though once this might have been so, it has changed now—the loss is no longer individual, tut national; the evil is no longer local, but general. The State is the chief proprietor, and it is the public lands that are rendered worthless. The settled districts of New Zealand are either intersected or bounded on one side by mountain ranges, and in these mountain ranges the rabbit finds secure refuge, whence it sallies foith to devastate the surrounding country. It must be borne in mind, speaking generally, that upon one side of the rabbit country (the settled side) we are using certain means for checking the pest; yet, upon the unsettled side, the rabbit, unchecked, continues to increase, and all round the fringe of the rabbit country is year by year extending. We at present destroy the rabbit by means of poison and hunting in various ways, such as' trapping, shooting, etc. The season for such operations is, principally, the winter months—first, because, when there is a scarcity of grass, the rabbit will more eagerly take the poison ; and secondly, the winter being the slack time of the year, labor is easily obtained for rabbit-killing. The work done by the rabbitter is necessarily incomplete, for, when the payment is by results, the rabbitter only hunts where the rabbit is thickest; and where the payment is not by results, the work is too often done in a very perfunctory manner; and as the season advances the rabbitter changes his occupation for shearing, harvesting, etc. ; the grass grows, and the rabbit will not take the poison, at. any rate as steadily ; the busy season is on, and the rabbit is neglected for more pressing work. This is the very time that the most strenuous effort should be made.

When a man ha# symptoms of some disease which threatens to become chronic, his advisers adopt no half measures, but grapple the difficulties at the outset; if those means fail others are resorted to. So when we are threatened by a calamity, the symtoms of which are pretty defined, and when the means used are not thoroughly effectual, we also should cast about far some other way in the hope that it may be successful. Then how should we continue our operations, and carry the warfare into the heart of the rabbit country and into the unsettled portions of the districts or of the Island 1 The only way seems to me by the employment of the rabbit’s natural enemy. I will not now discuss the most active and deadly natural enemy, seeing that the only one we have is the ferret The ‘ trained ferret,’ 1 contend, should be turned out in the spring in myriads , and the force be supplemented the following spring by a larger supply, and so on. Our course should then be a vigorous enforcement of the Act from May until September or October, when the ferrets should be let loose, and an unceasing warfare would be waged against the rabbit during the breeding season. It would be pursued by a relentless enemy into the very heart of the rabbit country, to the boundaries of that country upon the unsettled side, and into the mountain fastnesses, I venture to say that if this plan were followed persistently, the evil would be at an end in the course of a few years. If this course be not followed the prospect is appalling. Then how are we to obtain the large annual supplies of ferrets we require ? My answer is that the Government should, in every possible nay, encourage the breeding of ferrets by the people by advertising in every newspaper in the countay that they are willing to purchase any number of ferrets (say of a year old) for a certain sum per head ; that the Government should have large ferretbuilding establishments in many parts of the country; ferrets should be bred by our prisoners, and the inmates of the benevolent Asylums and Industrial Schools should be encouraged to rear themi from the want of this encouragement we lose the aid of our most valuable ally. By it we should have large supplies to draw upon produced by a portion of our population, who, from age, weakness, or youth, are unable to follow or obtain regular work; and private individuals would have markets where hundred# of ferrets could be purchased to turn out upon their properties during the summer months. A tax to defray the upkeep of the establishments and to provide for the purchase of ferrets should be levied for this purpose, and those people who either buy or breed ferrets for tho purpose of turning them out should be exempted. I am aware that many objections are urged against the use of the natural enemy by poultry fanciers, sportsmen, and Acclimatisation Societies; but 1 would say to them that desperate diseases require desperate remedies ; that the natural enemy would be turned out in tho wild parts of the country away from poultry-fanciers’ hen-roosts; and that poison and the rabbit together must eventually paralyse the efforts of the Acclimatisation Societies and deprive the sportsman of his game. It is also urged against the ferret that when the rabbit is gone, the ferret will be worse than the rabbit. A ferret requires his food every 36 hours, miss this period the animal at once becomes weakly, and with scarcity of food, disease would quickly reduce their numbers. A ravenous animal like the ferret, with keen scent, would be easily attracted by poisoned meat ; those that disease spared could be easily swept away by poison. The matter is too serious to the consideration of these objections

If I have exaggerated the evil by which we are threatened, so much the better ; still I think I have at least shown sufficient reason for the employment of vigorous measures ; if it be as great ns I anticipate then there surely can be no excuse for delay, but we should recognise the danger of our position, and by united action free ourselves from the impending calamity. I have, etc, C. i>e. V. Teschemaker. Nelson, July 2G, 1883.