FRIEND OR FOE?

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 99, 23 October 1924, Page 4

FRIEND OR FOE?

Experience with acclimatisation has shown that birds, beasts, and fishes brought to a new country may change both their form their habits. We know that the deer in New Zealand, are, on the average, much larger than the stock from which they were bredjand that • the trout in New Zealand lakes attain a size unheardof in- the waters from which the original stock were taken. Many examples might be quoted also of changes in habits. The weasel and the stoat are among the immigrants that are under suspicion. They were brought to New Zealand as workers, with the best of recommendations in rabbit extermination. It is freely reported of them now that they have become poachers, that they have preyed upon ground-nesting birds to the point of exterminating them, and have now commenced to climb and attack the tree-nesting species. Further, it is said that they have composed their quarrel with the rabbit, and now agree to share the same burrow under the somewhat unequal contract that the rabbit provides the home and, if poultry is at a premium, the supper also. It is -thought by some people, therefore, that it is time the Government called the bluff of these alleged rabbiters and proclaimed them to be mere poachers and enemies of native bird life. Answering a question in the House of Representatives, the Minister of External Affairs declined to act at once and remove the protection from Stoats and weasels,, because, he said, anything that helped to keep down the rabbits should be encouraged. His refusal to act rashly was wise; but there appears to us'to be reason to collect information concerning the present habits of the stoat and the weasel: Acclimatisation Societies and Farmers' 'Unions could assist in collecting and sifting this information. If- it is correct, as reported recently, that these supposed enemies of rabbits have lately been guilty of attacking lambs, the need for inquiry is even more urgent.