THE RABBIT COMMISSION,.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1875, 6 April 1889, Page 1

THE RABBIT COMMISSION,.

Sydney, April 3.

The commissioners appointed to enquire into the remedies for the destruction of rabbits have prepared their report, and it was laid on the table of the Legislative Assembly this afternoon. The commissioners dealt at length with the experiments made in Pasteur’s, Butcher’s and Ellis’s diseases, and the general conclusions arrived at wore that while with Pasteur’s disease the rabbits were easily killed by Additional microbes befog administered in their food, the disease did not spread freely from the infected to the healthy rabbits. To infect rabbits largely the bodies of the rabbits dying from the disease must be broken up by decomposition or by the ageney of carrion birds, in order to att the microbes free, and the commissioners concluded that for the destruction on a large scale it was necessary to feed the animals on the adcrobes. Therefore the rabbits were as effectually killed by poison. They add.,'d that they could not recommend tiie dissemination of a disease, at present not existing in the colonies, which had proved disastrous in other countries. It is doubted whether the disease tried at Tintinalogy run Is one that is likely to be communicated among rabbits. The disease of the bladder worm as found is referred to by the commissioners, and they agree with the opinions expressed by Professor Thomas, of Auckland, that this disease might be usefully employed, though it was not expected that more than a small percentage of the pest would be killed by inoculation. One disadvantage to the use of the bladder worm disease waa that under certain conditions it was dangereous to other animals, and even man would not bo free from danger. The commissioners, therefore, could not recommend this as a remedy. Reference is made in the report to the rabbit scab discovered in South Australia and which is used as a remedy for the destruction of rabbits, but the commissioners do not encourage its use with any hope of success in the dry districts. Altogether 1400 different schemes for the destruction of rabbits have been submitted to the commission. Thoir definite conclusions are that the responsibility of removing the pest must rest with the land-holders, the State to be under a similar responsibility as regards (Jrown lands. The rabbit pest made a continuance of annual leases of Crown lands impossible, ond no finality to rabbit destruction could be obtained without it being made compulsory to erect proper rabbit fences. The system of having professional trappers and State bonuses, the con:rals»ioneis think it radically bad, and they roconnn nd that legislation be > introduced to compel ibo landowners and V lessees of infeclo.l districts to loin in I defraying the cost of erecting rabbit 1 fences. ......