A PLAGUE OF RATS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 228, 24 September 1918, Page 2

A PLAGUE OF RATS.

• J The loss of food due to the depredations of rats is eomething enormous, and the urgent need for a united crusade being made in Auckland to exterminate come of the predatory rodcnU may be gathered fiom the fact that no less than sixty were killed at Tooman's Mart in a 6pace on the main-floor 12 by 12 feet. On thie a stack of fowl wheat had stood for about a couple of months, and that the rats were having a good time wae manifest from the day in which the stack was sinking. It was decided to fence the area with wire netting, and tins wae done, but unfortunately only to a height of about 18 inches. Then the eackii of grain were removed, and the slaughter began. The result wae sixty dead bodies, a.nd it la estimated that an equal number escaped by leaping the wire barrier. Other sacks of grain showed evidence that the ' rate , are equally at work in them, and vviil all have to be shifted. In many eases the wheat will have to bc.re.*acked. On Ihe 12th of this month the linn wrote to tne City Engineer ac follows: "The rat nuisance in our stores is becoming a very serious matter, and we have no hesitation in saying we have lost in wheat alone over £50, to say nothing to the damage done to oats and other grain Can you suggest a remedy. Of course, we have, laid poison, but thie appears to have made little difference." Up to this morning no answer had been received to that communication. 1