RABBIT PEST

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23001, 22 April 1940, Page 8

RABBIT PEST

Serious Concern Expressed . NATIONAL PLAN FOR EXTERMINATION “If a scheme of extermination on national lines is evolved, I am confident that the rabbit pest, which has been a bugbear to the country for so many years, will disappear," said the Minister for Labour (the Hon. P. C. Webb), when he outlined on Saturday his proposal to use unemployed labour on the clearing of rabbits from Canterbury, Otago, and Southland. .This was a work, he considered, in which the Government could well co-operate with the farmers to the fullest extent. The work would add enormously to the national wealth and also provide employment for men who were not physically fit for more laborious duties. The‘danger of allowing the rabbit menace to go unchecked was emphasised by representatives of the various rabbit boards whom he had met in Otago and Southland, said Mr Webb. In some cases, persons had given up hope of getting anything off the land by farming and were concentrating on earnings from rabbits. He was approached at Riverton by representatives of the Rabbit Board, who asked for Government assistance. They assured him that if some comprehensive scheme were not undertaken rabbits would get hopelessly out of control and that poisoning in the > winter time and allowing rabbits to breed in the-sum-mer was only aggravating the situation. They were satisfied that if a scheme of extermination were prosecuted energetically by the Government the production of wool, lamb, and grain would be increased in a short time. Details of Scheme “I pointed out that the Labour Department had under consideration the utilisation of unemployed men for this work,” said the Minister. “but before anything further could be done the rabbit boards would need to consider the details of a practical scheme.. I assured them that the Government would do all in its power to assist the production of consumable goods and that it preferred to see the men employed on work of national value. I suggested that the rabbit boards convene a conference before the spring, which I and officers of the department would attend, to evolve a scheme which would set out definitely to exterminate, and not, farm, rabbits.” The Minister said he was told at Fairlie by the chairman of the Rabbit Board, that if the pest could be exterminated, the high country near Fairlie could carry an additional 30,000 sheep. As a practical man with much experience in keeping .rabbits off his own property, the chairman was convinced that unless it was taken up on a national scale the effort to destroy the rabbit nuisance would be futile. Labour for Farms Discussing assistance to farmers, Mr Webb said 4000 men from Scheme No. 13 and Public Works were now employed on private farms under Scheme 48. providing for the Government paying 75 per cent, of the wages costs The work was carried out under a strict system and the men had averaged £ 1 a day. Close on 2000 jobs were now under review and thousands of acres which were wilderness before were producing grass and stock. Instances could be given where the carrying capacity of farms had been doubled as a result of the assistance. He knew of no case of a farmer being financial accommodation by the State or private institutions when he could show that the expenditure was warranted, and that the security was sound, y “When the war began, we 'were budgeting to employ 10,000 seasonal workers for the win- ✓ * ' ,

ter months on clearing, draining, and subdividing land," said Mr Webb. "I know,of no peripd in New Zealand's history when such assistance was granted, and, as the scheme becomes wider known, the appreciation of farmers is manifested by their" eagerness to avail themselves of this class of labour."