The Dunstan Times. "Fiat justitia ruat coelum." CLYDE, TUESDAY, JULY 23, 1901

Dunstan Times, Issue 2087, 23 July 1901, Page 4

The Dunstan Times. "Fiat justitia ruat coelum." CLYDE, TUESDAY, JULY 23, 1901

The second reading of tne Rabbit Nuisance Act Amendment Bill was carried last week, rabbit , . .. ~ , ,- .«' despite the efforts ol Mr ' Duncan, by a substantia] majority. Ihe object of the amendment is chiefly in the direction of providing that magisterial decision in r bbit prosecutions srmll be based on evidence fully tendered by both sides. Mr Hogg, in advocating the measure, s >id that since the Municipial Act was passed, the nuisance had been effectively suppressed in various-parts of the colony, and that there was no longer any necessity for drastic legislation. The whole object was to bring the Act into conformity with 4 the rest of our statutes, by enabling an adjudiciating magiss tratc to weigh the evidence before him and fulnl his ordinary lunc tions. Mr Duncan (Minister of Agricultuie) opposed the Bill on the grounds that the law was working fairly well, and that it could not be shown that any man who was cowvicted was not a delinquent, He also said lhat the law is not now involved against settlers as often as it used to be, but that is entirely, it may be asoUined. because the conditions, which previ» ously showed some justification for the making of such a law, has almost ceased to exist. In other words—and the facts justify the inference —the department is satislied that the Act i» being complied with- And what, it may be asked, has bi ought about this long looked for consummation? The answer, it is pbvious, must be that it is through the agency af the rabbit trap as an exterminator. Even Mr Duncan, strongly biased as he is against this method, must admit its effectiveness. No doubt