RABBIT ACT.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18206, 17 October 1924, Page 7

RABBIT ACT.

ADMINISTRATION UPHELD. STATEMENT BY MINISTER. (SPECIAL TO "THZ PEESS.") WELLINGTON, October 16. Recently an anonymous correspondent, writing from Wellington to a southern newspaper, made a charge that in regard to the rabbit nuisance prosecutions were held up by the headquarters of the Department of Agriculture. and stated that the time had come for a board of management to be appointed in connexion with the Department. Interviewed on the subject this afternoon, the Minister (the Hon. W. Nosworthv) said he had read what had been written on the _ subject. The charges made were so indefinite that it was difficult to know exactly what was meant. "The most outstanding point mentioned," said the Minister, "is embodied in the statement that inspectors under the Rabbit Act should be allowed to use their own discretion as to prosetions, because recommendations to headquarters that individual farmers be prosecuted are sometimes turned down. It is no pleasant matter to prosecute farmers, and I have had plenty of complaints regarding prosecutions which have necessarily had to be undertaken in the interests of the farming community as a whole. But this is one of the rare occasions on which complaint in the opposite direction has been made. "It is as well that the position should be clearly understood. In the first place I can say with justice that the officers entrusted with the rabbit inspection work have, on the whole, carried out their duties very well indeed, and when the extremely difficult nature of their work is realised, they deserve all credit. "As regards the complaint that recommendations for prosecutions are turned down at headquarters, a review of the Departmental records back to the beginning of last year shows that every recommendation for • a prosecution which has come to headquarters for a decision has been approved. These applications are sent through the district controlling officers, and it is not intended to alter the present system by allowing each inspector to use his own discretion as to prosecutions. "The Act is a fairly drastic one, and •the serious nature of the rabbit menace renders it necessary to carry out effective measures to deal with it. But the wide powers given by the Act render it equally necessary to have in force a system aimed at ensuring fair and just administration.''