A TOLL ON TAILS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 61, 9 September 1937, Page 8

A TOLL ON TAILS

Not long after the white man came to New Zealand he made the acclimatisation blunder of introducing the rabbit. Then, in an attempt to cancel that error, he blundered again by introducing weasel, stoat, and ferret. Today, a considerable body of opinion is in favour of a third move an organised attempt to control ihe weasel, stoat,' and ferret group by making war on them and by paying bounties for their tails. In the recent past, farmers' opposition to any human move against the rabbits' enemies (even though they be also the birds' enemies) has been so strong that successive Governments feared

even to lift the protection on weasel, stoat, and ferret; but eventually there was a partial lifting of the protection, and now a North Island scheme of bounties and vermin-control is proposed. If the farmers no longer oppose, then it can he said that.a remarkable change of opinion has occurred in a comparatively short time. It should be added, however, that the North Island scheme is not yet in evidence. What is in evidence is a willingness of at least two acclimatisation societies (Wellington and Hawkc's Bay) to contribute to vermin destruction on the assumption that a higher licence fee is charged and will be paid by licence-holders. Wellington has led off by deciding to offer a bounty of sixpence for tails. If vermin tails cannot be imitated as deer tails once were, a good work of destruction should be done. The larger scheme evidently depends in part on the Government, whose lead is now awaited.