RABBITS MUST BE SLAIN.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 189, 11 August 1919, Page 9

RABBITS MUST BE SLAIN.

A CASE I_. COURT. FARMER GIVEN STRAIGHT -YAK-SEX-;. The farmer knows the rabbit to be i\ nuisance and a pest, but it will interest him to know that the law oi the laud looks to him to do everything in his power to destroy the furry little animals that grow and multiply and overrun la_id far faster than weeds ever could do. Mr. F. K. Huut, S.M., sitting in the Magistrate's Court at Waiuku on Friday last, made some remarks after the hearing of a rabbit case that go to show that the law docs not look with the eye of favour upon the farmer who j_oglec_- to comply with the strict provisions of the Rabbit Nuisance Act. l'.lOS, and the Rabbit Nuisance Amendment Act of last ve.\r.

The ca=e was brought under the provisions of this law by Mr. F. H. Brittain, Inspector of Stock, against John Dickey, farmer, of Kobe Kohe, for failing to take Steps to destroy the rabbits that abound on hi* pr-perty after receiving the usual formal notices to do so.

Ailer convicting Dickey, and fining' him £5 with costs, the magistrate told him he was liable to a penalty of a hundred pounds for the breach. But the Court had taken into consideration the fact that he was an old man, and it appeared that since the information was ]__.d Dickey had done some work in the direction of destroying the rabbits, so he was '"let off lightly." The fine would be £5 only, on the condition that defendant would take steps to the satis- I faction of the inspector to have the pests ! destroyed, failing which the inspector | should lay another information against ,' him and ho would be mulcted of the full j hundred pound penalty. j "Mr. Hunt also remarked that if Dickey held property and would not I take steps to eradicate pests, he had better sell the land or else put in under the I control of somebody who would do this necessary work. "People must understand that the law says very definitely that these rabbits must be destroyed, and it puts the onus on the owners to eradicate them.'" The old fanner's son-in-law promised to undertake the work of destruction to the satisfaction of the inspector.