OPOSSUM CONTROL WILL CALL FOR NEW DISTRICT EFFORT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22820, 15 December 1948, Page 14

OPOSSUM CONTROL WILL CALL FOR NEW DISTRICT EFFORT

“The employment of eight opossum trappers in (he board's district is simply a waste of time, to my mind,” said Mr. R, Graham, discussing at yesterday's meeting of the P.B. Catchment Board a brief report from Mr. H. J. Lougher, on the good work being done in the Tolaga Bay district by the wild-life control division's trapping party. Mr. Graham added that the opossum menace would have to be tackled with the same sincerity as the East Coast Rabbit Board had shown in dealing with the rabbit pest. If the rabbit authority had worked within restricted areas and with the same number of trappers, the whole East Coast would have been infested badly with rabbits. “What is the use of having eight men killing opossums? If they worked all the year the position would be no better. What we need is a bounty system which would get hundreds of people after the opossum,” added Mr. Graham.

While agreeing that a wholesale attack on the opossum pest was necessary Mr. E, W. McEnnis pointed out that the party working in the Tolaga Bay area, under the auspices of the Department investigating the life-cycle of the rodent and studying the best methods of handling the problem. It was not a killing gang, he said, but would advise the board and the farmers on the best methods of killing.

“The opossum will not be controlled in this district until it is tackled in the same comprehensive way as the rabbit menace,” Mr. McEnnis agreed. "But that will not be possible until the landowners rale themselves for the same type of campaign. What is being done at Tolaga Bay is not costing district residents a penny!” The chairman, Mr. J. R. Hair, supported'Mr. McEnnis description of the work the wild-life control party was carrying out and agreed that the board was indebted to the Department of Internal Affairs for the investigation it had promoted. The establishment of a comprehensive control system would be necessary, but it would develop from the investigations now proceeding, he thought. The board had never ceased to press for the bounty system.