THE RABBIT NUISANCE. The Proposed Introduction of Stoats, Weasals, &c.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2185, 10 July 1886, Page 3

THE RABBIT NUISANCE. The Proposed Introduction of Stoats, Weasals, &c.

Oun correspondent at Te Awamutu writes : — I t^ee your Wellington coi respondent says that the committee appointed to repot ton the rabbit nuis nice will likely recommend the Government to import large numbers of stoats, weasels, and pine in n tens. Jt i-. to be fervently hoped the Government will confine their favours in this diiection to the other Island. We may object to tho partiality iti the distribution of public money m thai favourite part of the colonj 7 , but wo will not quarrel over the paitiality shown them in tlk i matter of stoats, weasels, and murtens even if all that are impoiled are sent there. The nbbit pe&t is bad enough and most, ruinous in its consequences to many of the uinholdeis, but the mischief woiki'd by the rabbits is confined to a certain portion of the colony. In thickly populated distiicts like thin it is not, and never will be bad, and as tho country is cleared they will become scarcer still, but the evil results of the importation of stoats and weasels will become general, for in this country, where the conditions of life and climate are so eminently favourable to animal life. they will increase enormously and soon overrun the whole colony It is all very well to talk about the balance of nature; people who know nothing of the propensities of these little pests talk veiy glibly of nature maintaining a balance, but I would a-«k them how the balance is to be preserved when those animals increase so much as to become themselves a nuisance? They have no natural enemies; their only enem y is man ; dogs may of course be regarded as their enemies, but only when employed in that direction by man, for dogs will not prey upon them, and there is no animal or bird that will do so either. In districts whero there are few or no rabbits they will not leave a head of either game or poultry in the country, for they must live upon some thing. Regarded from a utilitarian standpoint the loss of game would be of little or no consequence, but not so with poultry, these are an absolute necessity. Mai tens will be even more destructive in this respect than stoats and weasels, for the home of the former is among trees; where their food consists principally of birds. There is certainly one point in their fayour, if what is called the "pine marten" is the marten I have seen at home, that is their valuable fur. Those that I have seen have beautiful glossy black fur; the young martens have a cream coloured spot on the throat like the stoat, but as the animal gets older the spot becomes white. They are many times larger than either the stoat or weasel; the. fact that they were commonly called *? mat ten cats" will ctmvey some idea of their size. I knew a laige mastiff which wandeied from her home one day, and getting into a large extent of country which had been planted, in forest trees, and in which a colony of martens had settled, was attacked by one of them, which fastened on the dog's throat, and would have killed her but for the assistance of some woikmen who found her lying on the path with the marten fastened to her. One of the men hit the marten with his spade, when it let go the dog and seizing the handle of the spade, left its tooth marks on the iron straps and then made its escape. I have been told their skins were woith half a guinea each, but I fear each marten would do more damage than its skin would pay for even at that price. Not only gamekeepers but everyone at home wages continual war against all those pests, and if they cannot be kept down there, where population is so much thicker than here, and where the winters are so severe, how can they be kept down here where these conditions do not exist, and where there is cover the like of which cannot be found in the old country. I hope others will take this matter up, and by every means endeavour to prevent these pests being turned loose in the North Island. They will not wait till they have killed all the rabbits to show their de>trnctivßne>»s, for at all times they prefer game and poultiy to ground game. When the rabbits are killed out, or so reduced in number as to be no longer a nuisance, it will take a veiy short time indeed to finish off all feathered tribes. What will they turn their attention to next ! The question is a significant one, and I leave the advocates of stoats, weasels and martens to answer it.

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