The Small Birds.
—o— — At last meeting of the Levels County Council it was mentioned that fot email birds eggs and heads £215 had been paid this season as against £474 last season. A discussion took place on the general question of small birds. All agreed that the birds were more numerous and more mischievous this year than ever before. Mr Mee spoke strongly against poisoning, as from ms own experience it was not worth the cost. Mr McLaren said the value of poisoning could not bo properly tested except by everyone poisoning at once. Mr Butler bad observed that sometimes the poisoned wheat is effectual, at other times not so. Mr Pringle preferred baying heads rather than eggs, as if eggs were removed the birds would lay more, and it was well-known that the boys “ shepherded the nests for eggs.—Mr Macintosh remarked that if a. boy kept a sparrow laying ecrgs all summer and took all the eggs ke must be doing some good by keep, ins' that pair unprolifio. He rttSutioned that the Council does not pay for half the eggs tbs boys get out of neats, there being so many breakages; befoje'tbejf came to be counted,—Mr
McLaren said something must be d< no a? the birds were as bad on agricultural farms as the rabbits were on the runs■—Mr Campbell thought the Governuioiit should offer a bonus f the, discovery of a good poison, and the chairman said an offer had been made by County Councils wihout effect,—, Mr Macintosh said Mr Bell, of St. Andrews, told him that he had been very successful in poisoning birds with red lead. He used rape and turnip seed coated lightly with oil and then with red lead picked up by the oil. This he sowed on the surface, and when the seeds sprouted the birds picked them up,'.and were poisoned by the red lead, —Regarding the purchase of heads rather than eggs, the chairman said they offered good prices for beads, and got very few in.—Mr McLaren said they must have a compulsory law, to make people work together.—Mr Macintosh remarked that the small birds this year cost the district three times as much as it cost tc keep the harbour open.—Mr Pringle offered the explanation that the season had b on a very hard one on the birds, as thine wore no seed* of any through ;h • dry season, till tlio rain came. Tl/8 o was nothing else for the birds to oat when the grain was ready for them,
As a result of tho discussion, it was moved by Messrs Macintosh and Butler and carried—“ That'in view of tho immense damage done by small birds, ibis Council urges upon ihf Government tho uccobs.ty of pr.ssir', legislation making the destruction of small birds compulsory ; that a copy of this resolution bo snnt to the other County Councils in Canterbury and to each Canterbury M.11.R." Also — “ Thai lire Stock Dupnvtment b« written to and askad to have all the g-h-se mmicdialety burned on the Paroora, Opihi. and Teng-twai riverLi (In, as a means of destroying the birds and rabbits breeding therein.”
[iUv.ii.Tisr.M.-.xr.j Temperance items, (Published by arrangement.) ALCOHOL IN LUNG DISEASE. In our leading columns of October Ifhb last we published the statements of the Ur-an of the Faculty of Medicine ofjParia regarding alcoholism as a causa of lung troubles. Will all our readers, in conjunction with that article, take note of tho following : Mr James White, Secretary of the United Kingdom Alliance, in a letter to the Alliance News, says: —“Our own Registrar-General also shows uti in a very striking way the closeness of the relation between the two giant evils. FOR INSTANCE, of 61.251 men of general population, aged 25-05, 1000 die annually. Among the same number of London inn and hotel servant* as many ao 1971 die witbiu the same lime. “Of the 1900 deaths of the general population, 192 are from phthisis and 107 from pneummia, or 299 from the two tli leases. But- in too annual deaths in the group of 61,251 in-i an-i hotel servant), 007 are from phthisis and 246 from pneiim nfia, or 553 from the two allied diseases. NO OTHER CLASS suffers as much from either alcoholism or from phthisis or pneumonia as do the London inn and hotel servants, and, ia proportion to numbers, no class, except innkeepers in industrial -districts, have as high a death rate from all causes. “ IT IS WORTH NOTING that the teetotal Ilechabites, who mostly belong to tho working classes,- and the great majority of whom dwell in towns and cities, and have the disadvantages incident to modern industrialism, have a ‘ comparative mortality figure ’ of 560 for tnon of the 25-65 age period. That is, they have little more than oue-half of me death rate of males of.the general community for the same age period.
•* THE 1.1 O'-,:OR' SELLERS of tho country, as a wholo, of the same ago pnriiul have a mortality figure o i.A'2, which, in proportion to number?, is tint nearly three of thoui died for every two of the general community, and about t'-rco for ov-ry ono of tho li-jchabitee.”— Prohibitioimi.
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Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 163, 8 February 1902, Page 3
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861The Small Birds. Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 163, 8 February 1902, Page 3
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