THE BABBIT NUISANCE.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1520, 19 February 1886, Page 5

THE BABBIT NUISANCE.

(TO THE EDITOR Or THB LAKI WAKATIP KAIL.)

Sir.—Permit me to lay befere your readers a few remarks on this subject, and, without an apology, to begin. It is hardly necessary to prove (there are proofs in our own district) that the rabbit is becoming more numerous and the rabbit nuisance becoming more serious. Week after week in your own columns we read of runs being thrown up, and farmers are forced to leare their homes, whilst districts clad with vegetation are literally bare. Nor is this all. crops are destroyed and honest hard-working men can uo longer maintain their families. And people naturally ask—What is the cause of this ? Echo answers, most emphatically, the rabbit. So much for the cause and effect, now the question naturally arises—can a cure be effected, and how? It is an acknowledged fact that Rabbit Inspectors, be they ever so energetic, are wholly onable to cope with the pest under existing circumstances, and we must look to another source. Is it not possible, for ibstanco, for Government to offer a hi«h price for the furs, and in every infested district to establish a depot for the receiving of skins ? At the same time all and sundry should l»e at liberty to go where they chose to catch bunny without permission fron anyone, except Government, provided they are accompanied by nothing which would disturb or destroy the farmer's stock—and this permission is absolutely necessary, 6o that no mAU could make profit by what we may term rabbit farming. 1 presume the majority of inspectors, or other authorised persons, would undertake the superintendence of the depots —for inspectors would be no longer required—and thus no expense would be iucurred in engaging any officials. The rabbit is known to increase to an alarming extent during the month of September, October, November and December, and it would surely be well to offer 6d per skin for nil sizes during thes<s months and a less price in the other tight. Each female killed during the breeding season means the destruction of an indefinite number of young ; hence it follows that what Government then paid 6d for might in a few months cost them four times that sum. On the other hand, it may be said that skins might be caught all the year round and sold during the months spoken of; but surely every receiver would know frtsh uewly-caught furs from old ones. Then, again, it may be asset ted that Government won'.d not be able to get wh*t they paid for the skins, but it must be borne in mind that a large pnee is obtained in the London market, al«o, that the unemployed would have no :ourse for complaint —and surely the latter would save the State as much expenses the loss on the fnrs. Hut. what is infinitely better than all, with the disappearance of the rabbit the land would assume its pristine vigour. People with their flocks and herds not rabbits—would again settle on the land from which they bad l»een driven, and farmers and their crops would flourish where now there is nothing but desolation. The value of land would rise tenfold, and with it an income tax, which of itself would far exceed the cost of this scheme in less than five years. Population also would increase, and taxes, now grievious to be borne, would be laid on more shoulders and lessen the burden on our too thinly populated colony. 1 unhesitatingly assert that there is but one way to totally eradicate the rabbit, namelv, that of offering such a price for the fur that it will pay and pay urV to spend time in obtaining it, and if this were tried the rabbit and his ravages would be a tiling of the pait.—l am, etc. Pro Bono Publico. Shotover, 9th February, ISS6.