HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXVI, Issue 212, 12 September 1890, Page 3

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

The House met at 2.30. ' THE BABBIT PEST. Mr LANCE brought up the report of the Joint Live Stock and Babbit Committee. In speaking to the. report he said with reference to the rabbit question that the pest was now probably causing an annual loss to the Colony, equivalent to the amount of interest on our national debt, and he urged that steps should be taken to do a great deal more towards its extermination than was done at present. Mr MACKENZIE, Waihemo, expressed the opinion that the whole administration of the Babbit Department was a complete farce. He moved m addition to report, " and that it be referred to Government with the request that stronger measures be adopted for the eradication of the rabbit pest." Mr BICHAEDSON maintained that notwithstanding Mr Mackenzie's assertions, the records of the last twelve months was a grand one. Clean certificates had been issued for sheep all over the Colony ; and as to the rabbit question he pointed out that there were two million three hundred thousand skins exported less than the previous year, and that he thought showed) conclusively that the rabbit pest was declining. : After a lengthy discussion, m which a great many members took part, Mr Mackenzie's amendment was carried on the voices, and the report as amended was ordered to lie on the table. The House rose at 5.30.