The Rabbit Enquiry.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 4660, 14 July 1886, Page 3

The Rabbit Enquiry.

The Wakatip Mail, without giving its authority, says that the Parliamentary Committee appointed to enquire into the rabbit pest have taken the whole of the evidence, but have not yet arrived at any decision. The evil proves to be a most alarming one, and its extent can scarcely be realised. There is not the slightest hope of exterminating the rabbits, although, if the Act had been properly administered, this ATould have been comparatively a small matter some years ago. It appears that the rabbits aro extending all over the country, and are now encroaching on Canterbury and Hawke's Bay, and are even fairly plentiful in the King country. They reduce the carrying capabilities of the land by 70 per cent., and their effects are also shown in the reduction of the weight of the fleeces by in many cases. Some station owners pay as much as £3000 per annum to cleiir their land of the pest. The evidence further shows the rabbits to be übiquitous and irrepressible. They will even live in the snow, and two and a half feet wire netting will not keep them out, although they have never been known to get over 3ft netting. It appears that beyond writing , occasional notices to small farmers to clear their land of. rabbits the officials have done little or nothing, and the Act has practically been in abeyance. This enquiry is likely to do a great deal of good. The Star's Wellington corresdondent says : —The joint Babbit Committee have completed taking evidence, and will, it is understood, bring down their report in a few days. I hear that the committee will probably report that the present Act has on the whole worked satisfactorily when it has been properly administered. They aro aluo likely to recommend that there should be compulsory simultaneous poisoning during the winter and twice during the summer : that the Government should import immediately and continuously large quantities of weasels, stoats, and pine marten ; that there should be no bonus for skins; that clean districts should be allowed to form themselvesHito trustsffor the erection offences or other means, with rating powers ; and that a largo bonus should be offered to such trusts to discover the diseaao or any other means of destroying rabbits. I understand that the tendency of the report will also be in the direction of localising the powers under the Act.