RATS' PARADISE

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 129, 3 June 1935, Page 11

RATS' PARADISE

PIED PIPER WANTED

THE CHAYTOR STREET TIP

Rats ana their presence at the Chaytor Street tip formed the subject of a complaint made to "The Post" today by a Karori resident. In his opinion the district immediately adjacent to the tip, which is situated next to the main road past the Karori tunnel, is in danger of becoming infested with emigrants from the large colony established among the old tins and other debris from the uncontrolled part of the tip at the southern end.

■■ "In these days of the well-paid municipal jobs," said "The Post's" informant, "it is a great pity that the City Council can't get a Pied Piper to tune up at the Chaytor Street tip, particularly at the Birdwood Street end. The rats that would answer the call from the wilderness of rusty metal there would hold up traffic for quite a while; the trouble would be to dispose of them satisfactorily. Whether the tipping of house garbage into the northern end of the tip has anything to do with it I don't know, but it seems to me that lately there has been a great increase in the rat population of the tip. On a calm night, especially if it is moonlight, the creatures can be observed to be enjoying themselves immensely, playing hide and seek among the tins, and squeaking gleefully. I have even seen them performing their antics on Birdwood Street. Householders in the vicinity who once never saw a rat are beginning to be pestered by them, and in at least one residence the cupboards have had to be zinc-lined following the finding, after a period of mysterious malodour, of a large dead rat. I have seen a rat-catchenßßnd his terriers at the tip, but appafwtly they hold no terror for its inhabitants."

Complaint was also made by the same man of the smell from the tip. He asserted that it was often possible to. tell which way the wind was blowing by observing whether homewardbound Karori people walked past the tip up Birdwood Street (for a southerly wind), or along Chaytor Street (for a northerly), though neither route avoided all the odour. On some days the presence of the tip was more noticeable than others, particularly in hot weather. Smoke from burning waste was also a frequent source of annoyance. .

It should be ppinted out that the rats mentioned by thfc complainant cannot possibly live in the northern end of the tip, where the Bradford system of refuse disposal is in operation, as the chemico-bacterial action of the earth-covered garbage raises the whole to a temperature too high for any animal to-live in.