The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, JUNE 26, 1884. POPULATION V. FERRETS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1720, 26 June 1884, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, JUNE 26, 1884. POPULATION V. FERRETS.

Moke than one correspondent, in our open column, pointed out in reply to Mr E. S. Hawkins' letter on ferrets that population is tho best remedy for rabbits. We admit this, but our correspondents hardly go fur enough. In order to prove their case tliey must show that it is an available remedy, one that can bo applied, because if it be not a practicable measure for relief it is virtually no remedy at all. We would like our correspondents to indicate how many small settlers would be required in tbo Wairarapa to cover the ground occupied by runholders, Possibly live thousand might he sufficient, and assuming that about this number would suflice, wo would ask our correspondents where they can be obtained. The local supply is inadequate, and we would respectfully ask them whether they propose to import them at tho expense of the State, But even assuming that it would be possible within a reasonable time to obtain, say five thousand small farm settlers for this district, or a hundred and fifty thousand for the colony generally, another difficulty presents itself, which we hope our correspondents can resolve, The larger part of tho big estates now occupied by runowners are unfitted for small farm settlement. If small farmera were placed on them they would soon come to grief, and sell their sections off at a loss to fresh capitalists, Then whero would bo the gain i If the wholo of Mr R. S. Hawkins' run, for example, were cut up to-morrow into hundred-acre sections and placed in the market on easy deferred payments we venture to assert: first, that they would not bo taken up; secondly, that if they were taken up the occupiers of them would find that they could not graze a sufficient number of sheep or cattle to enable them to meet their engagements, and tho distance from a market would be absolutely prohibitive of dairy, farming, We trust our correspondents will not be

contented with merely asserting that population is the best remedy for the rabbit difficulty, but that they will show how population is obtainable, and in what manner ft can be located so that its character may be permanent and not ovanescent.