CORRESPONDENCE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1717, 23 June 1884, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

FIRE INSURANCE, To the Editor. Sir,-I would like, to ask (through, the .medium of your largely circulated paper) the business portion of the com>.; lnunity if it is not about time they took a leaf out of the .book of tho Welling: ton tradesmen with "regard' 'to 'lire' insurance? We havo just as good grounds for. asking for a : ' reduction in', the present exorbitant rates as they have down there, viz, a good.water supply and an efficient Fire Brigade. I am sure that tho Companies doing hero could afford to make a' substantial reduction in tho present rates, and the result would be increased business on their part and bigger subscriptions from tradespeople to the Fire Brigade Fund, enabling the members of that valuable institution to get necessary gear—bells, &c.,—without being under a compliment to the Borough Council (who seem to treat the Brigado in tho samo manner that a man .would a surly watchdog, throw him a bone to keep him from growling, and just tolerato hirn because he is useful).ln the event of the Companies declining to make any concessions, let some of our leading kttsiness men start,' a_ Fire Policy Holder's Association! with a view of forcing the Companies to reduce the rates to more equitable terms, and in the event of their j declining to givo a substantia! guarantee of support to some Company that will meet their views, . '

Awaiting an expression of opinion from yourselves or others of your readers.

lam (fee.,-. ■ Five Pounds. Five m toe Hundred,

P E 11 It E T S. (xo ins EDITOR,) Sin,—A great doal of uncertainty has existed in the Wairarapa as to the possibility of keeping down rabbits by ferrets only. This uncertainty has largely been causodby writers in your columns, who, professing a knowledgo of tho country in which ferrets have been tried, assert that the result Ins been unsatisfactory. The question is ono of such vast importance, no less to myself than to the whole of tho settlers in the iWairarapa that! resolved to go over to Marlborough and ascertain tho faots by personal inquiry and sight. I propose to state as concisely as possible the result of my visit. If is well-known that Messrs P. and F, G, Bullen took the lead in the introduction of ferrets into the Kaikoura, and that it is the fact of their success that is so persistently denied, I went at the end of May last to their house, and during a stay of ten days received tho most cordial hospitality, Messrs Bullen's house is on the Bea coast, about five miles from Kaikoura, There are about 2000 acres occupied with the .. house and homestead lying between tho rivers Eohai and Kuhautara, of -which 500 acres are flat land' under cultivation, or laid down in pasture, and' the rest is chiefly round hills, some of which havo been ploughed and others aro being ploughed, This land has been for the most part fenced with - rabbit netting. Poison has been and is used, and though there are ferrets on it they are as for as possible caught and taken on to the run. Mi P. Bullen occasionally shoots over this land and takes care that rabbits don't -establish themselves thero. Besides this Messrs Bullen have 300 acres of fine limestone hill on the Point and running •down to tho Quay afc Kaikoura, This Was acquired'ovor two years ago, and was then swarming with rabbits, It was fenced with wire netting and thoroughly poisoned. . Messrs Bullen ploughed it, and it was, when! saw it, covered with fine crops of swede 3 :>nd turnips. No* where could I see any Bign of a rabbit,

I have dealt with these two farms in order to avoid any confusion. I now come to the' main run, which contains 90,000 acres, and lies between the rivers Kahautara on the north, Conway on the south; and'is bounded on the east and south' east partly by the sea and partly by other'properties, The run consists of land of various formations and .qnali'ies, from rock and clay to, shingle •beds and limestone, though (he last is of comparatively small extent, Tho upp?r hills for tho most part are covered with tussock, but ihe sides and gullies have considerable areas of fern, small bush, andßcrub. The homestead and country known as the Green Hills, which formed part of tho run, is at an altitude of 16,000 feet above the sea.' and part lies close, under ranges, which, when I was (hero, were covered with snow. Somo 9000 acres are flat and low downs, ploughable, and of this about 4000 acres have been ploughed, and wero partly in grass and partly in root crops, Beyond this 9000 acres the run is of such a character that all mustering must be done on foot, The rabbits (which are tho silver grey) began to show themselves in serious numbers in 1870, and continued to increase rapidly in the following year, In 1872 Messrs Bullen turned out a dozen ferrets, and •from that time continued to turn out ferrets in small numbers as they could get them up to 1878, when thoy began breeding ferrets, and since when they have turned out from 100 to 200 ferrets yearly. In 1875, '76, and '77 Messrs Bullon had from 10 to 12 .rabhitters in constant employ, At the end of the year 1877, finding that the rabbits wero still increasing,, and having reason to believe .thartho'ferrota wero boing destroyed, thoy, dismissed all rabbiiers; but in March,: April and May, 1878, thoy omplyycd' again two men on a part where the rabbits were especially thick, and the result boing unsatisfactory they dismissed them, From that dale they have not employed rabhitters, The only men employed in rabbits are two. These wore necessary for the' protection of the ferrets,' This was prior to tho Act making it penal to tike or destroy ferrets, One is with h's son, aboundary keeper on the Conway, and it is his duty to 1 kill pigs and any rabbits he may boo, Tho other is in the position of a small settlor, who occupies a homestead of Messrs Bullon's at the Kahautara, milks from 24 to 40 cows, and employs two laborers, .Ho breeds ferrets for Messis Bullen on a capitation fee, and kills pigs uud rabbits. His chief duly as to. rabbits is to keep a bit of rivor boundary and shoot rabbits as they come on from tho adjoining property. These two men are at opposite sides of tho run, thirty miles apart, They only have two or three dogs each carefully trainod to ferrets. Tho rabbit skins tallied over by the man at the Kahautara boundary were in June, 1883 (representing five months' killing}, 93 dozen; in Auoust, 1883,48 dozen; in May, 1884,109 do°zen, giving a total of 3000 skins in 10 months, nearly all the rabbits coming over tho boundary.

Messrs Bullen have never laid any poison at all on the run, It is manifest that the two men employed, if they wor9 doing nothing hut rabbitting, could have no perceptible effect in reducing rabbits rabbits on 90,000 acres of such country as I have described, and that no poison at all having been used, if, as 1 think I shall ishow, the rabbits have been completely overcome, it is the ferrets alone that havo done the work, Before stating what I saw, I will give tho sheep figures. In 1878 Messrs Butlen shore 51,578 sheep, but being satisfied that the flock had suffered serious injury, and were deteriorating from rabbits, they theme*' duce"d it by boiling down, In 1879 they shorn 42,600 sheep, and again reduced the flock by boiling down, In 1880 they shore only 34,300, From this date the impression made by the ferrets became sensible, and they began to increase the flock as shown by tho following shearing I allies :-1881, 39,000; 1882, 42,000; 1883,47,000; and the flock now stands at about 50,000, all tho sheep I saw being in excellout condition. |

■ I have visited different parts of tho run, and I have been in tho evening up gullies,along creeks, and by spurs, atwhich •I,was informed that at ono lime 50 to GO rabbits could be shot in ono afternoon and eyening with a single gun, and havonover seen more than two rabbits in a rido, and but very few signs of rabbits, I travelled to Lovynconibe, now Mr Wood's property, past the Claronce Sheariug Ilesorve (now occupied by Mr Gibson, with the Claronce County) to the Green Hills, and saw corhparitively few rabbits, absolutely none on Messrs Bullins' land, I rode over tho Quail Eango down the Charwoll creek, returning to Iho homostead after sun down, a ride of fifteen miles. I only saw. two rabbits and very rare signs of rabbits, and-this country, the manager (Mr McPhadson) informed me, was a few years back completely infested witli rabbit?.

I rode fromtho Green Hills by the SheariugKeaerve.andleavingLevyncombe on the left, followed the creek down to the homestead. The day was warm and sunny after rain, yot I only saw fivo rabbits during the whole ride, about 17 miles, and the chief indications were not onMosßrs Bullen's side, The whole of this country a fen years back swarmed with rabbits.

Besides ferrets, Messrs Bullen in 1878 turned out two weasels, but nothing has since been seencf a weasel, and it is uncertain if the pair turned out wero not

two males. 'They hard also recently let out six mongoose, 'one of which was seen on the, run, and; another trapped 'on a neighboring farm, both in good condition. , ■'-"

At present; the .ferret keeper informed mo, they have jib place on which it is necessary to turn out ferrets, and they ar only being bred in oase of accidents, and he expressed the opinion that all the rabbits on the run were wanted for the ferrets, and further stated that wild piga are killed and left on tho run for, the ferrets to eat, The ferrets have been almost as great enemies to the rats as to tlie rabbits, In 1880, during hot close weather, distemper took off a largo number of terrets. and the rabbits increased slightly in some parts. '': Mr Wood, who has had Levyncomoe—--35,000 acres about two -years, has poisoned largely in parts, and is now breeding and turning out ferrets. He has no rabbiters, Ho is entirely confident as to the result, There is no doubt that a larpe sprinkling of ferrets sproad into LevyucorfPe from Messrs Bullen's run, Mr Gibson, who, as I have saio, has the Clarence run and shearing reserve (over 100,000 acres), is pursuing the same course, He has no rabbiters and is breeding ferrets largely. He last'year turned out as many as 380 ferrets. He considers that the ferrets have practically cleared the rabbits off a tract of oountry Urniles by 12. Belpw Messrs Bullen in "tho Amuri, a few ferrets have been turned out as a precaution, but the measures taken by the Messrs Bullen and the runholdera above practically Btopped the spread of rabbits on that side, After leaving MrG, Bullen, I rode a two days journey from Kaikoura to Blenheim —95 miles—and,, bad .an opportunity of seeing Mr StaceJ wlio is in charge of the Starborough run,, "Except in patohes, there were comparatively fow rabbits to be seen south of the Clarenco river on the oilier side of the " Lookers ou." The first real rabbit eaten country was reached on the further side of Flaxborne, but tho poisoning had been going on and but few rabbits were to be seen; Starborough was in the same state. The hills and downs showe] one large rabbit camp, aud quantities of dead rabbits. About a dozen rabbiters were employed on Htarborough, up to last year when the number was reduced, hut there are still ssme rabbiters employed, Last year about 400 ferrets were turned out, but the distemper was fatal to considerable numbers. Mr Stace tallied in 1882,163,000 rabbit skins and in 1883, 811,000 rabbit akins. The black and grey rabbit takes the place of the silver grey north' of the Clarence. He fears that the land ut not adapted to ferrets. It has a strong clay subsoil, has no bush or scrub whatever, but is entirely tussock, and has over a large portion little or no water in summer- The whole run contains about 35 000 acres, of which perhaps, from 10.000 to 13,000 acres' would be ploughable. While fully admitting the disadvantages to ferrets of the nbsonco of all shelter, other than tho tussock grass and water holes and rabbit burrows, and the still greater disadvantage of want of water, I think, from several things mentioned to nie by Mr Stace, he is premature in concluding that ferrets will not eive the results on his country which they have below. Whether.this be so or not, wo have no country like Scarborough in the Wairarapa. Nono that I have seen that will not hold ferrets as well as, or even better than the Kaikoura country, When nearing Blenheim I was surprised to find on one run a considerable nnmber of rabbits. I was informed that they were not poisoning thero because the rabbits were sent into rabbit preserving works. We are fortunate, I think, in not having any rabbit preserving works in the Wairarapa,

I think- it needless to express any opinion on tha üb.ivo stfoment of what I havo heard and seen. I would only say that common ft: timi is neoessary, It is to use one man turning out ferrets if they are to bo systematically killed on the adjoining run or farms. No doubt if the ferret is, with one consent, adopted by all tho pastoral settlers in tho Waiivu'Apa, a substantial number of persons will be at once thrown out of the employment they are how engaged in. I cannot but feel that these men havo greatly helped the community to the best of their ability, when no belter means of keeping rabbits under was at our disposal, and I hope that the grealor part will soon outer on somo other employment. 'But at the same time I must point out how vast the gain will bo to tho whole population in sotting free tho vory large sums of money which have boon yearly paid away in ontiroly unprofitab'e labor and in turning vory large quantities of whoatand oats to.utlorly unproductive purposes. Tho same money omployed in foiling bush and scrub, in ploughing and fencing would havo given a largo return, adding to tho aggregate wealth of the Wairarapa, increasing tho demand for productive labor, and benefitting tho whole community. Now it is merely tho money wasted in its application to unproductive purposes. Tho damage done to flocks, 'and the depreciation of property has told und is telling heavily, against the general prosperity of tho district.

It is tho common interest of all that this solution of the rabbit difficulty should bo brought about.

One word lo the settler on small plots. If a ferret visit your poultry yard, do not kill it, Get a mate and make it pay for the damage. A pair of full grown ferrets if well eared for, and one of the boys could easily do it, will bring yoa in from 15 to L 8 a year, not a bad boginning for a Savings Bank account lor a boy at school, and ho may easily make it £ls or £30.-1 am, &c, PiObekt 8, Hawkins.