Administration Of Rabbit Boards Defended

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31659, 20 April 1968, Page 12

Administration Of Rabbit Boards Defended

County councils had enough to do without adding to their responsibilities, said the president of the South Island Rabbit Boards' Association (Mr R. A. Chaffey), commenting yesterday on a statement by the chairman of the Waipara County Council (Mr C. N. McKenzie) that about $120,000 a year could be saved if county councils provided secretarial and accounting services for rabbit boards. "Councils are not geared for thH specialised -work," Mr Chaffey said. “All rabbit boards are free to have their secretarial and administrative work done wherever they wish and naturally they will use the most economical and efficient method. “Rabbit boards are very well aware of the need to keep costs down to a minimum at all times without impairing efficiency, and because of this the question of saving expense by using county councils to do their secretarial and accounting work has been thoroughly examined over the years. The answer that speaks for itself is that none of the 30 rabbit boards north of the Rakaia River uses a county council to do its secretarial work," he said. “A few years ago the Rabbit Destructive Council made a complete survey of secretarial and administrative costs of all rabbit boards in New Zealand. Its findings were that these costs were at a very satisfactory low level. “All the enthusiasm, work and thinking of boards is directed solely to rabbit destruction. There are no diversifications, excepting some boards with opossum trouble, but the rabbit is the only national pest. Above all, they must have an efficient secretary who is keen on administration as well as accounting,” Mr Chaffey said. “The great help that rabbit boards have been so fortun-

ate to have had from their secretaries has been a m»<nr factor in reducing the rabbit infestation to the present low level. “Rabbiting and pest control generally is a specialised work and must be kept that way,” he said.