Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1895. THE RABBIT ACT.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XVI, Issue 4944, 6 February 1895, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1895. THE RABBIT ACT.

It is gratifying (o know that the North Witirarapa Liberal Association is discussing a question like the Rabbit Act, and coming to a definite conclusion thereon, but it would be still more satisfactory to find it going somewhat more exhaustively into snob a subject, and taking it in all its bearings. The Association, for example, recommends a compulsory rabbit fence, and this undoubtedly is a good thing; but it does not appear to have made any estimate as to the cost of such a remedy, l'abbit proof fencing, generally used throughout infested districts, may mean the expenditure of a million of money, or even of two millions of money, but will the Association say who is to find such an enormous sum. It is very easy for a Liberal Association to spend a million of money by resolution, or to call upon the Government to order sottlcrs to spend it, but the difficulty of finding the money, would be insuperable, Take the common case of a small far. mcr with a hundred acres of laud which is encumbered by debt and mortgage so that ho can hardly stagger under the load, How would it answer to compel such a man to spend a hundred pounds in rabbitnetting. Thousands of settlers throughout the Colony would be ruined if practical effect were given to the resolution of our Liberal Association. The value of wire Dotting is generally understood and admitted and its use is at present only limited by its cost. No one favours the present drastic Act with its arbitrary provisions, but it is a necessity to retain it until it can superseded by some more efficacious remedy. The suggestion of the Government assisting settlers by importing wire-netting and supplying it to settlers at a cheaper rate than they now procure it, would doubtless be popular, but why not go a stop further if the Government is to do everything, and import the machines l necessary for manufacturing it within ' the Colony and set tho unemployed ' to work turning out the netting. The J Association's ideas on the subject seem somewhat crude. The Govern- j inent is asked tb-i'mte settlers'to , use netting ty compelling them to j adopt it. Persuasion and com- 1 pulsion ' aro • both embodied' in ] the resolution, as our Liberals ] do not' quite appear' to have made up their minds to either. The i general question of rabbit oxtermma- , is ono that is better understood by U .practical men W the Legislative!!

Council than by the rabbitlesa members of the North Wairarapa Liberal Association, and if the Government do take the matter up, we shall expoet to get a little moio information from that Chamber than from any other souvce. Rabbit fencing is a matter of some practical importance, and it might be expedient to give the rabbit department power in certain cases to uso it for the isolation of badly infected blocks, but the universal adoption of it for sections is altogether impracticable. Even the Government will be unable to refrain from a quiet laugh at the expense of the North Wairarapa Liberal Association when it receives a copy of its resolution calling upon it to admit wire netting duly free. Does not the Association know that this commodity is already duty free ?. We can hardly believe that there is no one connected with it, who is able to save it from such an absurd mistake as this. However, the Association is an irresponsible body, which has not the courage even to admit the press to its deliberations, and too much importance must not be attached to even its blunders. The Association also seems unaware that some years ago Mr G. Bcctham, when member for tin's district, succeeded in obtaining a reduction of the railway freight on wire netting, and it also fails to grasp the fact that the real rabbit difficulty is not in n district like this where the plague can ke kept under by a very moderate expenditure of money, but in the broken country of the Middle Island whore the enemy occupies inaccessible fastnesses, and where wire netting would altogether failas a practical remedy,