CURRENT TOPICS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IX, Issue 497, 23 January 1879, Page 3

CURRENT TOPICS.

rThiH column is 'open'! to any one iwlio, in the coiirsfe •of his vending or otherwis \ ft-is i>icki!d uj) infmv .. ,pi;itioa. j\'iiiQh ; ,iuav .ha.ropriniail as of general! •"" : or ; locit iiitereVt/aad who can.express any comjinsnts thereon within tha :comp:isa of •a' •rea'Bimj- .__ T abla paragrapu.,-.Tne nam3_Qf_the_wxitor_is_refquirad, although not for pnblicatiou.] .; Uhder this heading [ wish to write a few words npon a subject, which, in a i*»w years, must be fraught with interest to the inhabitants, but more especially to the landholders of this Province. It has been my greatest astonishment during the past- few]] years, "that hearing qF ; 'lbe .and : dire, {destructiont the i'Hbbi{ has been making in Southland, the people ' : of -tiKiFnbrlh ern'part e*Pr6yjn_cp" baje manifested " little or ho interest in"""thf ■ question ! ofits>nihirntion;- V 'A~ little" 'inTorj mation. concerning-, tins destructive - erea.ture:.may;here.be not amiss, and if it4n-| structs any of your "readers; T shall- be ;suffieiently-rew-arded.- -It Heyed that the rabbit was first introduced '"iritoSpaia' from"Africa, by the""KotHanSj whence it gradually spread, acclimatising l r ;Af'a feast given by 'tlie AbbPt* of "St. Austin's, "1309; sixhundred'rabbits ; we"re provided at-the great cost of £ls ; sixpence,-:the cost of each, being the common price ot-a-pig I From thi3 we-find that-rabbits have beeri known in England for a very considerable period. The hareproduces her young clothed, capable of seeing ; they are consequently soon in a condition to provide for themselves. The circumstances of the rabbit are widely different. The young are born blind and naked, and totally helpless. The female forms a separate burrow. In this nest she deposits her. young, carefully covering them every time she leaves them; It is not until the tenth or twelfth day that the young are; able to-~see> butftliey do hot leave the bur- ; row until they are four or five weeks old.: The precaution of forming a separate bur-: row, lias favored the- belief that the male; parent will "destroy the young, should he: chance to discover them: - We know that the. female (domestic rabbit; will devour her offspring, if.molested at an early period, urged.by.the instinctive solicitude; for their welfare taking a morbid direction ;> but the propensities of these animals in a natural state may be different. Thus wild rabbits, pair, but, in a-state of domestication, there is no such union. ' The fertility of the_rabbit maybe im-i alined when it is 'remembered that it will begin to breed at the age o/ six months, and produce several broods in a year, generally from five to seven or eight at a time. Pennant says—" rabbits will breed seven times a year, and will bring eight young ones each time. From a pair, on a supposition that this happens regularly during four years, the numbers will amount to 1,274,840," In the timeof the Romans, they once proved such a nuisance in the Balearic Islands, that the inhabitants sought a military force from the.Emperor Augustus in order to exterminate them, Of course Ido not for one moment imagine we will have to resort to the expedient of petitioning for a military force, but we cannotjtpo'soon pay attention to such a growing evil that may —nay, will, shortly assume a vast extent. It is now—before the evil becomes top enormus—the time to grapple with it and not heedlessly wait until ■' bunny" has overrun and makes the country a vast warren. The expense to the people of Southland lias been a gigantic one, and the extermination of this little intruder will not be complete in many districts for a number of years. I can, three miles from where 1 writefgo any evening and bag a dozen in an hour with the assistance of a dog, what then will the country be in ten or twelve years where" this animal produces young with such astonishing prolificness as I have mentioned previously.' It is indeed time to do something if we wish this country to succeed agricultura s ly, if-we wish it to succeed in any way, we must exterminate " bunuy."—L