NETTING PROBLEM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 204, 29 August 1935, Page 9

NETTING PROBLEM.

CAN RABBITS CUT FENCES? POLICE TO INVESTIGATE. CHRISTCHURCH, Monday. A mystery awaits solution. Whether or not rabbits can cut through wire netting fences is a question confronting members o£ the Selwyn Plantations Board. They are not particularly sure of the answer, and are referring the matter of a damaged fence at Southbridge to the police for further investigation. The board received a letter from its superintendent stating that the wirenetting at the Southbridge plantation had again been tampered with. In two places it had been cut deliberately, in one place the netting had been removed and in another it had been rolled back. About eight feet of another section had been damaged, apparently by a vehicle. The superintendent suggested putting the matter in the hands of the police. Mr H. S. King, a resident near the plantation, also wrote concerning his inspection of the damage, and added that only ten days ago the fence had been repaired. He hoped later to be able to throw some light on the matter. It was reported that "Mr King had a cow grazing in the plantation with the young trees." Rabbits' Limitations. Laughter greeted a suggestion by Mr A. Anderson that rabbits might have cut through the wire themselves, but Mr Anderson told a tale of two rabbits kept by his son, which had escaped from their hutch by the simple process of gnawing through the wire. So the possibility was present that something of a similar kind had now happened. A member: Could they roll the wire back as well? Mr Anderson: No, I would not suggest that. (Laughter.) A large number of pigs had been wandering on the roadway some time ago, said the chairman (Mr C. G. S. Ellis), and this raised the further problem that the pigs might grub under the fence and let rabbits in that way. "But how did the cow get in?" asked a member. This question remained unanswered, and members decided that the solution of the mystery was best left in the hands of the police. No further suggestion that the rabbits were blameworthy in the matter was made, and it is understood that they are not to be interrogated.