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Manawatu Herald, Volume I, Issue 83, 17 June 1879, Page 3

The Babbit Pest. — Eecently a meeting was held in Wairarapa, to consider what steps should be taken to exterminate the rabbits. Various suggestions were made, but no definite course of action was decided upon. The Wairarapa Daily, however, impressed with*the tremendous importance of the subject, came out, with a " rare " leader, in the course of which the following profound remarks occurred :— When as we presumed, the late meeting separated without throwing any light on the difficulty, we overlooked one suggestion whioh was certainly novel to us, viz., that cats might be utilized to exterminate rabbits. We are strongly reminded by it of Artemus Ward's celebrated essay, *' Is oats to be trusted," and in this instance -we have come solemnly to the conclusion that they are not. It would take some years to obtain a numerous race of wild cats in the Colony. Our own domestic tabbies are too fond of sneaking round warm hearths and homes to go rabbit hunt* ing, and if kicked out perpetually from the Bhelter of our roofs, will h*ng about human habitations as long as a single one of their nine lives remain to them. We understand that tho experiment of working the Act is to be made in this neighbourhood, and we shall be glad to see it tried. Like a patent medbine, if it does no good, it is guaranteed to do no harm, and it is not at all expensive. We give up the task of solving the problem ourselves to our legislators, who have experience and leisure to help them to a right conclusion. We trust " rabbits " will have a paragraph in His Excellency's speech at the opening of the coming session. Swamp Dbaining. — A correspondent, referring to Waikato swamps, and to the facility with which they can be drained, makes some remarks whioh are singularly applicable to the swamps of the Wairarapft- many of whioh owe their origin to choked up water-courses. He says : — " A lurge portion of this swamp land has been caused by the outlets for the water being blooked up by eel-weirs made by the natives. A great number have been found in some swamps. I was shewn several. The eel-weirs being formed in the original creeks, the flow of water had been stopped : a luxuriant growth of vegetation having afterwards taken place, the water bad in consequence been forced back, and so over* spread the land. It is generally believed that dense forests of various sorts of trees r once grew in the whole of the swamp country, as logs, stumps, and roots are invariably found both on the surface and imbedded in the peat. At the Te Aroha block, a great proportion of which is swamp land, I saw a number of men forming a road, and the bottom of the drain they were cutting seemed to be one mass of rootß."— Standard.