The Wairarpa Daily. MONDAY OCTOBER 22, 1883. RABBITS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1515, 22 October 1883, Page 2

The Wairarpa Daily. MONDAY OCTOBER 22, 1883. RABBITS.

i Uncomfortable rumors reach us from nil sides as to the spread of the rabbit pest. In this district good work has been done in reducing their numbers, but; we question whether enough of it has been done to give any assurance of extermination of the' pest. From the Wairarapa tho rabbits are spreading to the North East and the; North West. Whareama is thoroughly- infected arid tho Napier and Miinawatu districts are endeavoring to protect themselves from the advancing enemy by miles of boundary fencing. Had they erected such a barrier two or; three years ago, the plague might have been kept outside their borders, but now we fear the settlers of Hawkes Bay and Rangitikei have been a littlo late in taking action. Many dwellers in towns and villages fail to understand the magnitude of the rabbit evil. Some even regard it as a righteous judgment on greedy station holders, or as a dispensation of providence'to sweep away large landholders, and replace them with small farmers. It has been estimated that our rabbits in New Zealand cost £3,000,000 per annum, a sum which is adequate for the support of 20,000 fa'miles, and an amount which w.ould keep in comfort a population ten times as great as that which we possess in the wholo of the Wairarapa, During the first few years of the rabbit difficulty the question of dealing with it was left in the hands of settlers, but. the latter proved unequal to the task. Then the Government took it up with somewhat better results, But the Government unfortunately have not proved equal to the undertaking, The evil is of such a magnitude that to stamp, it out means the expenditure of a large sum of money, The Government are afraid to spend much money, and have been trying to work the Rabbit Act as cheaply as possible, coupling it for the sake of economy with the Sheep Act. In this and other districts a small staff of Inspectors'do all that can be done with limited means to- keep rabbits down, but it is apparent that without such a staff is largely increased ; rit will be years before the rabbits are W' qiiered, Our readers wili observe that . ; the Whareama settlers are organising to destroy rabbits, but it is perfectly

evident that if a Government which ■has. undertaken the work of extermination were doing all that could be effected, it would be quite unnecessary for Hawkes Bay, Manawatu, and Rangitikei settlers to take action, The fact is the Government are only taking half measures, These may be better than the quarter measures formerly resorted to, but sooner or later full measures will havo to be taken, and tho longer they arc delayed the worse it is for tho country, •We hope that town and country settlers will be alive to tho necessity of increased exertions on the part of the Government, Some Mas-' terton people may say, what is it. to us] "Well, the rabbits reduce tho total of hard cash spent in the town every year, by at least ten thousand pounds. It is as essential for the towns as it is for the country that rabbits should be exterminated. We.are no advocates for the Government worrying settlers in Law Courts. This does little good, because the' money spent in fines and fees, does not kill rabbits. It is very evident that where settlers. do not themselves' keep the pest down the shortest and most direct way is for tho officers of ]ho Department to. destroy the rabbits. The area occupied by rabbits in 'the North Island is now obviously'extending rapidly indicating that the Government Department is unequal,to,!tho task it has undertaken, We noticed a cartoon the other day which represented a ferret chasing a rabbit, an alligator coming after to destroy the ferret, and then a missionary to exterminate the alligator. The conundrum propounded was assuming that the ferret killed the rabbit, the alligator the ferret, and the missionary the alligator how the missionary was to be got rid of. In a similar way the question arises now as who is to worry the Government, The settler was in the first instance employed to hunt the rabbit, then the Government stepped in to hunt the settler, Now some power is required to hunt tho Government, lost, after all, the irrepressible rabbit checkmates all the agencies brought to bear against it, .

To-day the votes for the delegates in ,the North Wairnra'pa County Settlers Assooiatiou have lo bo recorded, and wo hope_ soon to see this new bantling in working order, Judging from our correspondence columns many people are carping at it and at its projector, Mr Hawkins, with considerable persistency. But no doubt other Bottlers, like ourselves, will recoeniae that an organisation of such a _ character, is necessarily surrounded with preliminary difficulties, and that it is only fair.to suspend judgment on its merits till it has had a reasonable time to get on its legs, and show what stuff it is made of.

: It is reported that a number of civil servnnta have rocoived notico lo quit, The prospectus of tho Wellington Woollen Manufacturing' Company-appears in another column Mr F, H, Wood liad a successful sale of general merchandise' on Saturday at his rooms Greytown. The recent heavy rains are said to havo been destructive to rabbits by flooding out burrows on low ground and drowning neats of young ones. The Greytown Cricket Club have been again disappointed in their opening match owing to the rain, it will therefore not be played until Saturday next. Mr C, Campbell, tho well-known watch maker, notifies that clocks, watches and jewellery left at Mr R, H, Chinchen's for him will be promptly repaired on reason able terms. _ Some of the delegates for tho Foresters' district meeting at Palmerston passed through Masterton to-day. There is to be a halt en route to enablo a new court to be opened at Woodvillo. A novel development of the meatfreezing industry has been hit upon by Mr G, S. Smith, of the City Butohering Company. _ He is shipping by the British Queen, which leaves in a few days' time, a consignment of lambs—tho best obtain-able-rand these he undertakes to deliver to the order of any customer. They will be forwarded to any part of the United Kingdom, and the recipient of these Christmas boxes will have the hitherto undreamed of luxury of lamb upon their flintier table in mid-winter. The idea is an ingenious one, and is likely to bo taken advantage of.—Otago Times. The newly-arranged competition for Lieutenant Williams'; trophy was commenced by the Masterton Rifles on Saturday last; when Corporal A. Matthews (scratch) got the first " leg in" with the splendid' score of 64, having made 47 out af a possible 50 at the 200 and 300 r yar ; ds, Wimbledon target. This is one of the highest scores made in the .Wellington;district, and considering'tho boisterous ;weatber on Saturday is a performance. 'Vols.,, G. Bontley (scratch), and C. Bentley (2 points), each scored GO, and Corporal Kibblewhife'O ppints), 53. On Saturday last the heavy flood in the Waipoua excavated the roadway at the south wing of tho new bridge. It will be remembered that this time last year a similar cutting was made at the north wing of the Bame structure. Planks were promptly laid oyer the.cavity on the present occasion, so' that traffic was not suspended. The bridge itself was uninjured. When this bridge was built the contractor delayed cutting out the channel in accordance with the specification till the water flowed under it, and the work of excavation assumed formidable proportions The Council waived this condition of the contract as the contractor had evidently lost money on his undertaking, and the scouring this year and last is the result of tho insufficient depth of channel, Floods are, however, now doing the work that formed a part of the original contract.

A man who. was strongly suspected of stealing a purse "of monpy was searched yesterday by the police. He only laughed at the operation, asking the officer whether he thought a Yorkahirenmn like himself who had been round the world would, when he took a purse, be fool enough to carry it about with him. We believe the suapeoted party is n recently arrived immigrant, The Government apparently are not very particular as to the characters of the men whose passages to the colony are paid out of the public purse, Judging from several cases which have transpired in our police courts, it would answer our purpose much better to pay. a head for shipping certain persona to England rather than find that amount for bringing them from England to New Zealand, , Rait & Hare's.2s 6d tea unequalled for purity arid flavor. Try it I—Advt, • jyiKiLs' '" Koran os GonHs."—Ask for Wells' 1 "Bough on Corns," ' Quick relief, complete, permanent euro, Corns, warts, bunions. Moses, Moss <& (Jp„ Sydney, General Agents,

The rale of. the privileges of the Tauherinakau races;,by Mr F, H. Wood; wob a completo failure, owing to iotas cause, both the publicans' booths and grand stand bar, and luncheon room being pasaod in, the two former at £5 and M respectively, and the latter at £lloa, No 1 refreshment booth was bought by Mr. Barrett for £5 ss, and No 2 by Mr Why to' for £2loa, fancy stall by Mr Fuller for 7s od, the horse yards brought Mfa, and were knocked down to Mr T. W. Brnjrgius. The cards were passed in at i 5, but were Bold privately afterwards for £5. The gates were passed in at M, the highest outside bid being M The Grst tiding from Mr G. Beetham M.H.R, since his departure, havereaohed Masterton in a lettor from Honolulu,

Mr a. S, W, Dalrymple advertises quarter acres of land in Wrigley's estate at £3B, only 18 cash required. Mr Harford had rather a rough through trip with the Oaitlepoint and Whareama mails on Saturday last, and when the bags arrived in Masterton it was evident from their moist appearance that his pack horses had been doing a little swimming.