THE SMALL BIRD NUISANCE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXX, Issue 10213, 6 December 1893, Page 6

THE SMALL BIRD NUISANCE.

TO TES EDITOR.

Sib, —Now that the elections are over, and w© know that quit© a number-of farmers have been ■ returned as members of the House of Representatives, it is a matter, of vital necessity that some thing should be done at once towards reducing the number of the small birds, and the farmer members will confer tho greatest benefit on their brother farmers if they will bring in a Bill for this purpose. I would suggest that the Govrrnmeat offer a bonus for same invention that will have the effect of disposing o? these birds rapidly, as the means at present need for killing them, the poisoned wheat process, is so familiar to the :birds tlxac they avoid it. At present these small birds are in millions, and are eating off ther grain as fast as it comes into ear. The farmers would suffer loss if they had ito contend with the caterpillars instead of the small birds. No wonder that farmers are, in so many caaec, in a state of actual' poverty, as these birds and the botfly are working their ruin, and the Governments of the. Colony are responsible for such a state of things, as the y grossly neglected their duty in permitting their introduction/ to tho Colony. Graingrowing will have to be abandoned if this small bird pest is not brought within reasonable limits. Those members who are themselves engaged ia farming must be fully alive to.the -dreadful necessity or getting rid of these fearfally destructive peats. Very little, in tho way of iegidatioa, is over done to promote the welfare of farmers as a class, but as the time has now arrived, it is to be hoped that something for their benefit will be. accomplished by tho House, and that those terrible scourges will be brought to an end. I need scarcely add that the farmers are the producers of the Colony, and ba,vo every right to expect to have their complaints attended to- Trusting that others will take this matter up—l am, &c., A FARMER.