RABBITS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1683, 12 May 1884, Page 2

RABBITS.

[to the editor op tub daily,[

&ift, —Some time during the autumn yon gave your readers a description of a rabbit preserving manufactory started in P'.enheim, to which rabbits are brought in from the Marlborough runs'in thousands, Young ladies in the district are known to havo lulled as maiy as a hundred rabbits in a day. Recently two gentlemen from Wellington visited Blenheim, and in about an hour an} a half killed a hundred and seven \vjli only two dogs, and at the present time Marlborough, is admitted to be abotfj tho worst rabbit district in ■New Zealand, yet this is the district that came firward so prominent about two years ag» to show the Government and the county how to get rid of tho rabbit pest, the session of 1882 Mr Dotip, member for tho Wairoa, made i most extraordinary statement before thc House of Representatives, whichappeared iu an issuo of the Daily at tie time, MrDodson said ferrets were i\ huudreds of thousands on the MarlWougli vims, ntid" had actually cleared ihe runs of rabbjts. Mr Bullen wrote to,gay that lie left his rabbits entirely toUio ferrets, and at the. same time Mr Bullen, to my knowledge, had two or three men employed shooting rabbits, When thoso unfounded representations were made to Parliament, the Marlboiough rtifis' were quite as bad with rabtr.ts as thev are now. What could indwe gentlemen of position to rnisead the country is hard to say, It is fully twelve years since ferrets han been tried in large numbers in Marlbo:ou»h and very fow of them ever sunivod one winter. However the stats of Marlborough at the present time is surely sufficient proof that ferrets a. most useless undertaking. Of course our Legislators do not want to heat or know this, as they have been voting away public money in importing and breeding ferrets, which are now proving to be a complete; Mure, Certainly it is right to try experiments, but surely this could have been dono to a. much better purpose. I had considerable experience of' the rabbit nuisanco in the north of Scotland, and I have watched the rabbit question in New Zealand with some interest, and it is surprising all the nonsensical talk we jiearin connection with the'rabbit question, even by some of our Legislators, The rabbits have /natural enemies undoubtedly, and surely it will bo admitted, that man is their worst enemy \Wien he puts his enmity into enemies, such as cats, stoats? and wef sels, and: several species of, hawks,'

Those enemies of the rabbit only destroy what rabbits they require for their foocliiwith. the exception of stoats and weasel j 'these are very destructive among rabbits, and tliey are animals .tliafc will ; tlirive well in a very cold climate. .They have been known to livo and breed under the observatory on the top of Ben Nevis, and they are the most suitable animal that can be imported for destroying rabbits. Tour corrCspondant, "Query," whoever, he is seems to know all that, ferrets are useful for, and I fully confirm the views lie expressed' in his letter to the Daily,of (| the 24tli inst, viz., "that ferrets are more; useful, ill their tame state then they are when wild." Run' holders are under the impression that if we had all the nat ural enemies of the rabbit in New Zealand, they would exterminate the rabbits. I think this is a'mistaken idea, they might certainly help a little towards this object. Tho Earl of Seafield owns a very extensive estate in the County of Inverness, which is chiefly under deer, where all tho natural enemies of tho rabbit are allowed to breed from year to year, principally for keeping down grouse in the forest, as in the stalking season grouse are often in the way of deer stalker's, but still there - are more rabbits on this estate than any other estate in the Highlands, and it is only by close attention and by skilful labor they are kept from mining - this beautiful estate, and this in a climate ' where labbits only breed during the summer months, and in this colony we have them breeding all the year round. Some runholders must notice when' the bnsh cover is taken from rabbits that they at once take to. burrowing and make their clgfences stronger than eveiy and increased the difficulty of getting rid of them,\ Newly burned ground should be carefiiHy looked after until it gets a good surface then rabbits are uot so apt to burrow as they are in loose earth after burning. Instead of-. matters of this kind being-leaked after on somoruns rabbitters are to brS££.n going about with spades trenching anaV turning up the soil to.the great delight of rabbits, as they at once come to a place like this, and leave their young iin the place made ready for them. A.ll | vabbits should be ' turned; out of holes by a trained ferret, and all holes properly closed up instead of making them deeper and more numerous, The ten-bob-a-week rabbitter is a most dangerous individual to the runholder ; he undertakes work which. lie knows nothing at all about. When rabbits are. swarming In can kill some rabbits, but, at the same time, he is allowing the rabbits to increase to such an extent that - his ground lias to be poisoned, his employer likely to be fined by the rabbit department .several times a year, and likely to get several hundred sheep destroyed with poisoned grain. When all this is taken into consideration, along with the deteriorating effect rabbits have on wool and stock, a man of this description proves rather expensive, Yet, no less than half-a-dozen of these men are to bo ! found looking after 15,000 acresof Inml, and cannot do tho work of one good man j yet this is the class of men that the inexperienced runholder looks for. There is another class of rabbitters that wants wakening up—men that continue from year to year taking big tallies of the same block of country. These gentlemen, it is to be feared, are voluntarily "getting at" the runholder by keeping up a good supply af rabbits all the year round in case' they may lose what some of them considers good situations; but there are a few men of a different class in the Wairarapa district that have rendered good service to the district and their- employers, and has smashed down the rabbits to susli an extent that no poisoning is required; and the gentlemen that are employing men of this class in the district weio conspicuous by their absence from the Martinborough meeting held lately. Runholders that employs a number of rabbitters all tho year round, and have also to poison their runs have a grievance, and there is no wonder, though tliey would pay for tho extermination of rabbits and rabbitters.

Tltf most important thing that transpired at' the Maryborough meeting was that an honest rabbitter in the neighborhood of Tupuruupru was of opinion that ferrets would do all the business, It Beems this thoroughly honest man only found one nest of young rabbits—after a season's breeding all tho other rabbits were old ones. It matters not what run this honest man is employed on in the Wairarapa, he will find if lie will allow many summers to pass over his head without finding more than one rabbit's nest that his old rabbits will be mysteriously increasing. Probably this honest man thought it would be good policy for him to coincide with the views ofthegentlomen that questioned him. I am, &c., v A, McDonald.