DESTRUCTION OF RABBITS

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28216, 2 March 1957, Page 9

DESTRUCTION OF RABBITS

New Major Step Planned

COUNCIL CALLS FOR EXTERMINATION

A major step in the rabbit war, involving 328,700 acres, is at present under consideration in South Canterbury. If the scheme is implemented it will give almost complete coyer of the area and will bring much closer the day when the last rabbit will be caught. The farms concerned in the proposals range from small holdings of 15 acres to runs covering thousands of acres.

The rabbit boards directly affected by the proposals are: Four Peaks, Upper Pareora, Albury, Opihi, Rangitata, and Mackenzie. These six boards are at present responsible for rabbit destruction over an area of 1,162,150 acres. If the new extensions to their areas are approved by the Minister of Agriculture, Mr K. J. Holyoake, they will be fighting the rabbit over a total of 1,491,750 acres.

Recently Mr G. B. Baker (Timaru), chairman of the Rabbit

Destruction Council, and Messrs C. D. Matthews (Blenheim), who is deputy chairman, and T. McKenzie (Invercargill) and A. Forrester (Christchurch) attended meetings of farmers to explain the scheme.

With two and three meetings a day, the council members finished this tour late on a Saturday night at Fairlie. Generally, farmers showed keen interest in the scheme and a good proportion of the 1200 affected attended the meetings, in spite of the harvesting work which was in full swing in South Canterbury. “Some Opposition” “We had some opposition to our proposal, but oyer all I think farmers realised the necessity for complete coverage if the rabbit is to be wiped out,” said Mr Baker in commenting on the meetings. Last week each farmer concerned was posted a questionnaire asking whether he was in favour of the extension in his district. A summary of these questionnaires, with reports by officers of the Department of Agriculture and a recommendation from the Rabbit Destruction Council, will be sent to the Minister of Agriculture. After studying these, and maps showing the degree of infestation in the area and the situation in adjacent boards’ territory, the Minister will decide whether the additional country should be brought under the control of a rabbit I board.

Addressing the meetings, Mi Baker said that there were three major moves in the rabbit war. First was the devaluation of the rabbit, which the Government had decided should come into force on April 1. Second was the complete coverage by rabbit bo’ards of rabbit-infested areas, and the third was the implementation of the section of the act providing for the compulsory establishment of boards, where necessary. Present Weakness So long as pockets not controlled by boards were left as rabbit sanctuaries it would be impossible to beat the rabbit, continued Mr Baker. Rabbits quickly learned where they could live in peace, and from the uncontrolled areas they reinfested places which had been cleaned up at considerable cost. “Rabbit destruction is costing the country over £1,000.000 a year in. direct expenditure, and we must reduce this total,” said Mr Baker. "It can only be done by preventing any likelihood of reinfestation of areas, and there is only one way of achieving this object: by complete coverage of every area in which the rabbit is breeding.” All the rabbit boards whose boundaries would be extended by the present scheme have already taken in additions to their original areas. Mr Baker continued. Though in some cases there had been misgivings at first, all the extensions had operated successfully and to the benefit of the area taken in, as well as to the original board.