DESTRUCTION OF WALLABIES

Press, Volume C, Issue 29424, 28 January 1961, Page 16

DESTRUCTION OF WALLABIES

Poisoning In South Canterbury The fear of wallabies becoming a national problem in the South Island has led to an intensive eradication campaign in recent months.' Mr H. J. Elgie, a livestock instructor with the Department of Agriculture, writing in the “New Zealand Journal of Agriculture,” says that tremendous progress has been made in the last eight months in the eradication of wallabies by aerial poisoning in the Hunter hills, South Canterbury. On more than 80,000 acres the kill of wallabies was estimated at 95 per cent., he said. The animals were spread over about a millipn acres, the main concentration being in about 250,000 acres in and around the Hunter Hills. Infestation ranged from odd, scattered animals to more than one wallaby an acre. Action was taken after representations had been made to the Government of the danger of the spread of wallabies and of their becoming a national problem. The Rabbits Act was amended in 1959 to allow rabbit boards to accept responsibility for destroying wallabies and the Rabbit Boards Wallaby Destruction Committee was formed, Mr Elgie said.