A JOB WELL DONE

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30745, 8 May 1965, Page 10

A JOB WELL DONE

The president of the North Canterbury Rabbit Boards’ Council, Mr R. A. Chaffey, was not speaking empty words when he said at the annual meeting of the council this week that Mr G. B. Baker, who is to retire at the end of this month after 17 years as chairman of the New Zealand Rabbit Destruction Council, had done more to raise agricultural production in New Zealand than any other man.

It was a fitting tribute to Mr Baker’s signal service to his country, for from the campaign against the rabbit, waged so relentlessly by the Rabbit Destruction Council

and the rabbit boards throughout the country under Mr Baker’s leadership, has stemmed a considerable part of the extra production that has contributed to New Zealand’s prosperity in recent years.

Mr Baker has been no mere figurehead in this campaign. He has seen the needs of the occasion clearly and has not hesitated to the pursue these goals. When he became chairman of the Rabbit Destruction Council at its inception in 1948 about 18m acres were covered by rabbit boards operating varying policies and making little progress. A policy of gradual devaluation of the rabbit was instituted until it was reduced to the status of a worthless pest and boards were converted to killer organisations accepting responsibility for the whole of the campaign against the pest in place of the spasmodic and fluctuating efforts of individual farmers in inspectorial boards. One of Mr Baker’s very dear aims was to see the whole of the country covered by rabbit boards so that there would be no loopholes in the system. That last aim has been long in being realised, but it is now, as he retires, a fact as county councils take over the functions of rabbit boards in areas outside existing. boards.

Opposition Mr Baker has had his enemies and perhaps no other farming leader has come in for such bitter criticism from his fellows. The opposition to his policies has come mainly from areas where, happily, rabbits were few and farmers, perhaps understandably, were reluctant to have their country taken into a new rabbit board or an extension of an existing board, even if it meant a step in the direction of the attainment of national coverage for the national good. But as was to be expected of a man who won the Military Medal and Distinguished Conduct Medal in World War L Mr Baker was not deflected from his goal, and his insistence that the pressure should be kept up unceasingly on the pest, lest it build up again, has been periodically confirmed by reports of renewed upsurges of rabbit populations in limited areas. New Generation A younger generation of farmers and farm workers is growing up who know little of the bad old days when hillsides moved with rabbits and the country was laid waste by this tyrant. It is worth quoting from a report issued last year by the Rabbit Destruction Council, in which it was estimated that the work of the rabbit boards had resulted in an increase of

£33,670,000 a year in meat and wool production.

“The removal of the great masses of rabbits has not only permitted higher stocking rates but also vastly improved production from the same number of stock. There is ample evidence available demonstrating substantial increases in wool weights, improved lambing percentages and a lower death rate from disease and malnutrition . . .

“With the reduction in rabbit numbers and consequent improvement in cash resources it has become both a practical and economical proposition to carry out oversowing and topdressing and to bring in new country. These features of farming are major contributing factors to in-

creased production and resulted in a tremendous upsurge in farm production between 1948 and 1963.

“A further point that deserves to be highlighted is that the work of rabbit boards over the last 15 years has undoubtedly stopped the invasion of rabbits on to adjacent clean country with beneficial effects on farm production .. . “This review does not attempt to assess the contribution made to curing soil erosion problems, but rabbit eradication measures during the last decade have been of incalculable value. This has been freely acknowledged by the Soil Conservation and Rivers Control Council. Similarly the work of rabbit boards as a valuable water conservation agency has been mentioned by the Tussock Grasslands and Mountain Lands Institute.”

When the history of this golden age in New Zealand farming, with all its impressive advances, is written, the men of vision, and chief among them Mr Baker, who revitalised the campaign against the rabbit and reduced it to a problem of small proportions will be remembered with gratitude.