THE RABBIT PEST

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 3, Issue 854, 24 August 1881, Page 3

THE RABBIT PEST

% Mr J. N. "Williams, of Napier, defends the introduction of weasels in order to check . r ~ the rabbit pest. In a letter to tho TeleI M graph ho thus describes the progress of ';,': j' : " bunny" towards Hawke's Bay. He j:"writes: -Some time ago I visited'Waira- • '< for the express purpose of seeing what \:\\vaa being done. I had been told that ■ poison had worked wonders; that after ,;;'-" poisoning the rabbits could easily be kept down by the employment of a few armed men, assisted by dogs. This sounded very well, but ou actual examination I found that the North Wairarapa settlers were.as far as ever from the real solution of the question. Whom tho country is overrun poison is very e'ffec- ; . tual during tho winter months but i-r' ! enough rabbits always remain to give full employment-to large numbers of men and dogs. On tho very best country, where poison would be useless, it is ■costing £2OO per anumn for every 10,000 acres just to keep tho rabbits within bounds; on.the interior it is costing much more, and on poor land it does not pay to Mil rabbits at all, and many owners would gladly abandon portions of their land if at the same time they could abandon the rabbits, but as long as they remain in possession the law compels them to destroy tho vermin. Pheasant shooting is unknown as most of the birds have long ago fallen victims to poisoned wheat. I travelled up the coast from Mnsterton to Akitio making careful enquiries as I 'went, At Temii the first rabbits were seen just two years ago, and for a short time the settlers in that district .paid 5s por head for ench rabbit destroyed ; at the present time poisouod grain is being used by the ton, At Ohanga rabbits are now numerous, showing that in tho short space of eighteen mouths, and in spite of inspectors, poison, dogging, and every. thing else, thoy have travelled twentyfive miles in the direction of Hawke's Bay. The area of the Hawke's Bay. rabbit district is in round numbers three million acres and supposing it all to be good clear country—which it is not—a flumofatleast JCo,oooper annum will have to bo expended in keeping rabbits within moderate bounds; a large proportion of the rougher country will have to be abandoned, and the district lying north of Hawke's Bay as far as East Cape will, owing to the uaturo of the soil, become a huge rabbit warren. iGO.OOO per annum absolutely lost to our district is, I am persuaded, an estimate quite within the p/ark, but af (lie same time representing but $ fraction of the over increasing loss going on all oyer the colony. The returns from the South Island show (bat up to the present timo the decrease in the number of Bheep owing to the ravages of rabbits js two millions, which at 2$ per head means half a million sterling per annum pr in other words a sum of money that would have paid off the consolidated debt (Of the colony in a very few years, The (Sibpve shows beyond the possibility of /jontradietion, that misdirected acclimatising'energy has resulted jn p|o introduction of the 'most 'dire calamity tliat has yet befallen the colony,' Surely at fhe present time it is the duty of' every Acclimatisation Society in the country to fijeyotp Its onorgjfls, jn the '(ljrectiqj) of ; fnitigatjng some of fhe eyjlg for whjoh ■ BPcljmatjpafion js entirely lespousiblo,