The Wairarapa Daily FRIDAY, SEPT 27, 1899. ALL BOSH!

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3320, 27 September 1889, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily FRIDAY, SEPT 27, 1899. ALL BOSH!

Wk asltecl a settler who caine down from tho country to attend the late rabbit meeting what lie thought of the gathering. His reply was "It was all bosh 11 came away from it as wise as I went." Now we are not prepared to unreservedly endorse the view of this settlor, but " all bosh," does tersely describe the impression formed in the minds of many men who went there with the honest desire to obtain some new light or help in the task of getting rid of the rabbit pest, There were two parties represented at the meeting, one consisting of men. who desire to get rid of tho rabbits at any cost, and wlio are prepared to strengthen the hands of the Government in bringing about the desired consummation, tho other representing, settlers who are equally hostile to the enemy, but who shrink from incurring the heavy expense and almost endless trouble involved by the work of repression. The latter constitute the party which is at enmity with Inspectors and the Act. There run, too, through the meeting an underlying political current, and when Mr A. W. Hogg made a speech from the platform we wero strongly remmded of a certain general election which he very nearly won a few years ago by a clover score with scab, That he is now making a run on rabbits is slightly suggestive of a coming election in which a popular cry may be a big lever, llis interest in scab and rabbits is probably political! He to.o|c tho side of scab six years ago, but fortun/U.Jy failed to check its suppression,and now that Ije befriends the rabbit we trust to see his efforts to arrest tho department on its warpath as unsuccessful as 011 the formor occasion, In his speech he described the Inspectors as laying stock whips 011 the backs of settlers, and this because they merely carry out the duties Uiij/p.'Jpd on them by the Act, but he has apparently a stock whip of his own with which lie is pndeavouring to lash settlers into attacking the administrators cf the law, It is not his duty to create bad feelinc between the Bet-tiers and the department, but still, as a politician, it may bo to his interest to stir up strife, Though hard words have been used against the officers of the Eabbit Department, mid reckless charges made, to which they MS unable from their oliicial position to reply, o,a yet no proof lias been given of arbitrary GQilduct 011 their part. The record of the lato meeting supplies 110 evidence to justify ji'/ip random statements which have jbeen mo4p. Tho nearest approach to such pyiden,ce witi t!)P statement of Sir James McGregor, but a poiiclusive opinion wmof b.o founded.ev,on .on it without tllO department gave their side of tho case, TJifl practical outcome of tho meeting was fl peguest for information which may or may not lead to a proof that the Inspectors have exceeded their instructions by cmplpy/jig counsel 'in rabbit cases. The issue ,u- c this is not of great consequence us I'egaivll the future, as |jje JKosidont itjtc $• cjde.d not tp /j'low .counsels expensesj in thesp crises, fouL $ flight lead up to a vantage ground fr/jm .viljjcli the department 01: {jQvpmant be' attacked with some chance of success. Mr Andrew w for {go honourable and able a man to mako the reckless statements in which some others who arc working with him are wont to indulge, but for this very reason ho is tho more dangerous as an opponent of the Act- Wo are

Quito prepared to admit the strictures against the measure which ho brought forward, but knowing the extreme ability with which lie, in past yoara, has defended himself in our Courts from the informations laid from time to time by the Inspectors, we cannot help thinking that if the Act were toned down to meet his views, and if Inspectors wero debarred from engaging counsel, they would have no moro chance of compelling him to , keep his rabbits down than they would have of tripping a Philadelphia lawyer. If Mr Andrew's rabbits could only lay informations against him he would, wo feel contain,

speedily exterminate them, His one fault on the rabbit question is that lw has had too many of the pest on his own property, He can trap an Inspector, but can he catch a rabbit ? However, Mr Hogg has reason to bi gratified in securing an ally like Mr Andrew. Ho did well out of scab, and now naturo, which abhors a vacuum, gives him rabbits for a war cry. 11 any settlers will, 110 doubt, be influenced by the raid made against the Department by secret convention and open public meeting, though the more thoughtful of them see clearly that whatever objections are found with the means recently adopted to administer the Act, the fault-finders are Hot prepared to show what other methods may be resorted to, unless we are 10 accept Mr Hogg's suggestion of extermination by manual labor. One man to each rabbit would doubtless prove efficacious, but who will bo able to pay for the horde of catchers and fencers necessary to carry out such a project ? Mr Hogg is truly the friend of the rabbit and the rabbit catcher, but how about the poor settler ? Give Messrs Andrew, Meredith and Hogg all they demand and the process of exterminating rabbits would be arrested, but this is not what settlers desire, and not what they have 11 right to expect, The same policy which resulted 011 a

former occasion, in the teeth of a similar opposition, in banishing scab from the district, will prove effective

in clearing the rabbit pest. . Messrs Clifton and Urummond will be regarded when the battlo is won, as the' best friends of those, leaving politics out of the question, who are now so bitter against them.