"RAT WEEK."

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 219, 16 September 1938, Page 18

"RAT WEEK."

AUCKLAND CAMPAIGN. FIRST WEEK IN APRIL. HOW PEST IS COMBATED, Auckland's first 'rat week" is to be held in the first week of April next, and although the time is a long way ahead, immediate preparation* are to be made for a combined plan. It is intended that i lie campaign shall lie ou a very wide scale, and request* \\j)\ be made to the l>u*iucss community, householders and l«.ciil Uidii's of contiguous area* to assist. Although Auckland , * rat population is probably not a* large as it was -nine years «go. it is still fairly extensive, and the collective damage caused :* great. In an unobtrusive way the Auckland City Council cirriiw on daily extensive operation* to deal with rats in the \ illicity of the waterfront and commercial area of the city, and last year 7(KH> rats were killed and sent to the Auckland Hospital, where macroseopical and microscopical examinations were made. This necessitated visit* to N232 premises. 2ti.7l:i settings of trap*, and in addition the supplying of IIA.iHHt hurt*. In the city area rat bait was piovided free of charge.

Migratory Period. In spite oP this good work, however, and the employment of rat-catching *|>ecialints, it has been feJt that best result* cannot be obtained until a general campaign and .-"cheme is launched. The choice of April 1 as the date of commencement i- a for the reason that at that time of the year rats are migratory and in search of winter quarter*. They will then take bait* .readily, and can be tiapped fairly easily.

In the city area the erection of the modern type of building in steel and concrete hn* lessened the evil. Another fnetor in that there are not the stables and supplier of grain that were avail nl>le before motor transport liecame general. In siil>url>an Auckland stone wall!) give saiictiuiry, and' residents who keep a few fowls and scatter food about daily find indiscriminately help the rat* to increase their iiiiiiilhts. Those who wage a constant war on rate have reason to rate high the sagacity of rats, their general cunning, and the fact that they will at time* move from on* quarter t« another literally in battalions. Cases have been recorded of a rat shifting an egg after lying on its* back and being towed along by companion rats, and they will climb a high building by down-piping, or on any surface that gives the faintest of footholds., Discontinued Payment. The city's war on. rate has I>een carried on for "thirty ' yearn, and the opinion in held that inore would lie achieved were the public not no apathetic. There wa« once a time when every Auckland rat had a.price, not on its head, but on its tail. The xnm of 3d need-to l<e paid for every rat tail produced at a city depot. This was discontinued. It was found that small boys, with the prospect, of getting 3d, thought nothing of carrying a dead rat in their school bags which contained their luncheons, or of using one of their coat pockets for a .similar purpose. Official payment is now made only by (he Health Department, and' that payment goes to the Auckland Hospital Board in support of. bacteriological examination work.