SALA ON NEW ZEALAND RABBITS AND EMIGRATION..

Mataura Ensign, Volume 7, Issue 368, 24 June 1884, Page 5

SALA ON NEW ZEALAND RABBITS AND EMIGRATION..

The following article in ihe welj known style of George Augustus Sala (who is shortly going to visit our part of the world) appeared in a recent issue of the 'Daily Telegraph': — • New Zealand is in a difficulty. It is in dangiT of being over-run with rabbits, who threaten to eat the inhabitants out of field and far^i, house and home. Lord. Granville said that an old friend of his once wished that rabbits had been made by Nature 2in longer, for he would not then miss them so frequently when out shooting. The farmers of the Britain of the South are more exacting. They echo Caligula's wish regarding his enemies, and pray that their millions of little guestshad oneneckso that a single stroke might destroy all. It is, perhaps, no consolation to the colonists to remember that they have brought this affliction on themselves. • Time was ere New Zealand's woes began, When wild in woods the noble Maori ran,' and saw no rabbits crossing his path. Then arose a rash Englishman, and, remembering his experience at Home, said 'Let us import a couple ani so make the wilderness cheerful with thousands of bounding bunnies. 7 Tr ; s recurrence to the circumstances of the old home is characteristic of Teutonic colonists and the 'happy pair' were ; soon secured . The rodent Adam and ■ his nibbling Eye were turned loose, and their Cain and Abel never came' to blows. A multitude of descendants; then crowded up, no Deluge interrupt*-, ing the increase. The doctrines of] Malthus have found little favoramongst English laborers, Irish peas- 1 ants, Hindoo ryots, or African tribes ;! still less amongst rabbits, whose early, and prolific marriages have become pro-; verbial. The problem is pressiDg. If the rabbits go on increasing as at present, the whole pasturage of the colony will be destroyed. Shooting down will not do ; traps and poison' have been tried ; but the multiplication beats the subtraction ; and all goes merry as a marriage bell amidst the still augmenting population with paws. Even if the New Zealanders were op«* posed to eating flesh on principle^ the difficulty would just be the same! Vegetarians want food, and, how r ever reluctant a human being may be to kill an animal in order to eat it, what is he to do if the animal is rejsolved to devour that which was my tended to be the sustenance of man $ Are the inhabitants of the two islands to bow to the decree of destiny anql lie down and starve rather than lifi; k hand against the sacred lives of the little creatures ? Perhaps Professor Newman will kindly explain. Or is it justifiable for. the colonists to endeavor to redress the ! balance by importing stoats and weasels to cut the throats of the • wee, timid; cowering little beasties 1 ?' If so, what is the difference in principle between shooting a rabbit anjd putting it in' a pot and importing a friendly weasel to take away its life 1 1 In the one case man does to make, in the other to save, food. We do not see the distinction in morality, but the vegetarian philozooists may be . able to discern what to a coarser sight N is, invisible.

'• Too many rabbits in New Zealand, too many hungry mouths here ! Does not there seem something perverse in the idea that nice little dinners are running about plentifully there — under our very feet — while hqre men, women, and children pine ail the. week for want of a bit of meat 1 The colonists are importing stoats and weasels to kill and eat ; why not English children to catch and cook the . luring little dishes ? Can ■we not call in th» Old World to redress the balance of the New ? Were New Zealand well peopled, this plentyplague could never have arisen, for the people would have been too thick upon the ground to allow the increase. But there are vast fields untouched, untilled,, and rabbits have multiplied because human beings have not. At length some public effort is being organised in England for shifting the surplus humanity from this old and crowded country to half-empty continents and islands — empires in everything but men. Lord Brabazon's. society, which is encumbered by a terribly long name — the ' National Association for Promoting State-directed Emigration and Colonisation ' — held a meeting at the Mansion House recently and men of many creeds and parties united in expressing a faith in emigration as the cure for some of our social ills. The Archbishop of Canterbury wrote : " The best and fittest means by which these miseries of over-pros* sure can be transmuted into comfort, and even affluence, is obviously by the people spreading out — that is, settling in other parts of our Grcsiter Britain — by eminigration to our own colonies. This has run its own course so far. But we seem to have now reached in point at which, to enable capable men to take advantage of the best opportunities in the best way, some public action of the State in their favor or at least some direction, is required to one form or . another.' , Cardinal Manning whose influence amongst the Irish residents ,in England will be useful in tJiis s connection, alt>o wrote, saying : " Holding, as I do, that emigration and: colonisation are the extension of the Mother Country, and that in this sense they are the true counter action of fche disintegrating

policy which seems to me to be threatening the Empire, I believe th t lam in agreement with the Associ - tion in its object and scheme. If therefore you think my name in. the list of patrons worth having, I shall be happy to give it.' Both tre i Archbishop and the Cardinal put the question in its true light. We are helping in this way to build up New England across the ocean. There are thousands of people who are fit to go, and would make excellent citizens abroad, b»t who lack the means to cross the seas and the knowledge requisite for the selection of the best markets for their labor. Mr Samuel Smith stated that there are 300,000 children of the pauper class who might be sent out with great advantage to the colonies and themselves. Here they oaay find it difficult to get rid of the pauper taint; there, with ample demand for their labor, they would become self respecting, self supporting, colonises in a few years. By going they would also benefit those left behind. Single women here who can offer nothing but unskilled labor are in demand in Australia and Canada, where they immediately get situations and speedily husbands with houses and farms of their own. What is required is that ;we should open a cheap and easy means of communication between the Old Country and the New. Instead of Australia sending us dead meat, iced or tinned, to be coasumed here, we ought to send our surplus of hungry women ana children to tend there the cattle upon a thousand hills, and to live ' like fighting cocks ' on beef and mutcon at 4d and 2d per lb — with rabbit stew to be had for the catching | and cooking. One caution seems necessary. . From St. Pancras station, on Wednesday, a party of emigrants were despatched to Canada, under the direction of the London Samaritan Society, many of them being from the East-end of London, We say nothing j as to this particular case ; but as a rule the best emigrants for abroad are to be found in country places. A man or woman, a boy or girl, who has lived in the country, who knows farm work, and the ways of birds and beasts, is much more fit for a new land than those who have dwelt in the slums or | outskirts of great cities. Besides, if we tap th© rural districts on behalf of the Far West, we divert that stream of humanity towards our towns which now causes so much competition, overcrowding, and disease."