EAST WAIKATO RABBIT BOARD.

Matamata Record, Volume XVI, Issue 1445, 27 July 1933, Page 1

EAST WAIKATO RABBIT BOARD.

JULY MEETING. The July meeting of the East Waikato Rabbit Board was attended on Tuesday by Messrs. J. Allen (chairman), A. Lopdell, W. J. Baldwin, R. Carruth, W. D. L. MacDonald, J. J. Shine, E. Lord (inspector) and A. L. Mason (secretary). Railway Payment. A letter was received from the Railway Department stating it approved of the arrangement of a trapper being put on its property at a cost of £5. —Received. An Instruction Necessary.

Mr. Shine mentioned a case where poison had been laid needlessly close to a pig-stye and a farmer had lost

valuable weaner pigs in consequence. The poison had been laid within seven yards of the stye. If he had the power he would have sacked the man on the spot. He thought that some instruction should be given the men.

Mr. A. Lopdell said that the poison should not have been laid within a chain or two of the stye. It was almost Impossible to keep sucker pigs in a stye. The clerk said that when investigated a totally different version had been given.

Mr. Shine said that might be so, but the fact remained that some instruction should be given to guard against such occurrences if possible.

The clerk said that another aspect was that rabbits would go for a

considerable distance after eating the poison, and in one case a poisoned rabbit had gone into a pig-pen and died. The boar had eaten it and had become very ill, though eventually it recovered. The case showed another aspect of the danger. On the motion of Messrs. Shine and Lopdell, it was decided to can- ( tion all sub-inspectors to see that the utmost discretion in poisoning around homesteads and pig-styes, ■' etc., was used. - -. ; Inspector’s Summary. Mr. A. Lopdell read the following j summary from the report of a sub- ! inspector, which he held was typical of farmers and was worth noting by the board:—“The majority of farms in my district look much better, but will have to be kept at or will go back. It is hard to get farmers to keep at the rabbits; some will, and others will do nothing unless one is at them all Uie time. Most of the farms that were dirty, and have been trapped, if kept at, will be all right. I notice ; the new farmers make the best job of the work, r.s they do as they are told. One farmer told me he had ho burrows on his place, and I could count 20 from where I stood.”