FIT FOR THE ZOO.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 167, 16 July 1924, Page 5

FIT FOR THE ZOO.

m THE NEWMARKET RAT. TRENCHES EST THE BACK YARD. "They ought to lassoo some of them and present them to the Auckland Zoo," said a Newmarket citizen this morning to a "Star" reporter who went out to hunt up a hint that a pied piper of Hamelin was wanted at the progressive and independent little borough that "sits bodkin" between two large quarters of Greater Auckland, and is as careful of its autonomy as Zaghlul Pasha who lives in Cairo. "Come around here," said the man who thought of enriching the Zoo with some specimens of the mus newmarketensis gigantica, and he led the way to his back yard—and incidentally common to about four other tenants. "They come out here in half-dozens, and some of them are as big as an Airedale. We laid poison, but it is no use; the people next door evidently use them instead of dust bins, and keep them to eat up their garbage, and as fast as we got rid of ours more came along, and now you can hear them barking at night." And the annoyed Newmarket citizen pointed out several "runs" leading to underground hiding places, the said runs being big enough for a cat or a small dog, but the suburbanite assured the reporter that the rats, alone and un- | aided, had formed the well-worn I channels. Npt only underground did j these "trenches of communication" lead, but under adjoining houses and sheds, i "What is wanted is a big rat drive, and everyone should be compelled to destroy the rats on his property, just in the same way as the city authorities insist upon from time to time. If plague ever broke out here I don't know what would happen to Newmarket, with such a horde of rats to carry infection. "Further along the street there are some real old man rats, with diseasedlooking tails and hides that are sloughinoff in places —most repulsive objects. "Why should Newmarket suffer so much from rats? Well, you can see for yourself that there are a lot of very old buildings, some of which are not in the best of repair, and we want stricter supervision." Another thing that cropped up during the talk was an allegation that in more than one place people were sleeping on what are called "lock-up shops," that is, shops where there is no living accommodation, the shopkeepers being supposed to lock up at night and go and sleep elsewhere. "In there," said the "Star's" informant, pointing to a room about Sft square, "there are three people sleeping, and further down the street, in a shed sort of place, there are several people sleeping under circumstances that I think should not be allowed."