RABBIT CONTROL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 June 1943, Page 3

RABBIT CONTROL

PROPOSED EAST COAST BOARD TO EMBRACE LARGE AREA. MEETING OF FARMERS HELD YESTERDAY. A proposal to form a rabbit board embracing an area of from 250.000 to 300,000 acres, extending from Awatoitoi to the coast, southwards to Longbush, was agreed to by a meeting of farmers held in Masterton yesterday. A provisional committee was set up to define the boundaries, fix a proposed rate and circulate a petition among the farmers of the area concerned, asking for the establishment of a rabbit board.. It was stated that over 50 per cent of the farmers in the area concerned had to agree to the formation of a board before it could be set up. Mr Hugh Morrison presided. Opposition was voiced when Mr Alan Keir suggested the setting up of a board in. the Kaituna-Matahiwi-Mount Bruce area. Mr Keir said a board was necessary to prevent the spread of the rabbits from the infested to the clean areas. He said it was no good .one farmer trying to clear his property of rabbits if the adjacent property owner did not clean up his property. Several speakers .said it was the farmer’s own fault if his place was infested with rabbits. They asked why should they pay for the cost of keeping rabbits down on other farmers’ places when they had kept the rabbits down on their own farms.

A motion moved by Mr Keir that a board be formed in his area lapsed for want of a seconder.

The following provisional committee was appointed: Messrs R. W. Sharp. Colin Deans, P. J. Borthwick, F. B. Tatham, lan Macßae, A. McDonald, J. C. Eroad and M. D. McGregor; secretary, pro tem, Mr R. H. Williams. The provisional committee provisionally approved the boundaries of the board as follows: —From the mouth of the Pahaua River to the junction of the Hinakura-Longbush roads, along the Longbush Road to Te Whiti Bridge and across to the Taueru Road to Taueru, skirting the boundary of the Tinui Rabbit Association to the coast and down the coast to the mouth of the Pahaua River.