CLIPPINGS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 13 August 1926, Page 3

CLIPPINGS.

The two following pars, are taken from a discussion in the House on the eradication of rabbits. Mr Glenn (Rangitikei) complained of the nursery ground for rabbits in the centre of the North Islaud. There wbb one station that used to shear 20,000 sheep, which now was shearing only 2000 or 3000 sheep. The Government should take the land back and give the man compensation for ruining himself The Bales of rabbitskins all over the country were increasing. The Hon. D Buddo (Kaiapoi) recalled that many years ago there bad been rumours of a rabbit invasion fron? Nel son and Marlborough to the Canterbury Plains. He said tbat someone bad jo kingly suggested tbat farmers should grow cabbages in patches, sprinkle thfm with pepper, and let the rabbits in and aliow them to sneeze themselves to death.

Rabbit eradication is apparently very expensive in Australia as the following par. will show:— Although the rabbit pest is very much in evidence in the south-east of South Australia, the Mingbeol Estate, of 17,000 acres, in the Mount Gambier district, owned by Mr E. O. Kirby, states the Australasian, has not one rabbit on the property. This was ac complished by "ploughing in" the burrows with bullock teams. Although the work cost about £6,000, the in creased returns in one year were just about double the amount expended. An enthusiast for elephant* is trying to persuade the settlers in Western Australia to use elephants for work on the land. Tbey are just the thing, he says, for farming, hauling logs, pulling down trees, ploughing, wheat loading, stacking, and heavy work of all kinds. He is now trying to form a syndicate to import a couple of trained elephants to demonstrate their powers. The price of an elephant landed in Australia, according to the promoter, is about £350. It -will do the work of six draught horses costing £SO each, and can be rationed for 5s a day, whereas six draagbt horses would cost 21s. Also the elephant's working life is 75 years, whereas draught horses call for the old-age pension at a fourth er a fifth of that age. The figures sound all right, and the elephant man points out that in other countries elephants have done the class of work mentioned for hundreds of years. I have not heard whether any Western Australian farmer intends to give them a trial. Mention of elephants reminds me of some curious items regarding other beasts and birds which Australia has imported from the East. Camels were Hoing cheap the other dey—3s 4d each This was the price paid by Mr James Brenna. of Ouyen, in North-Western Victoria, for six camels which had been impounded at Tutye, nearby. There has been no slump of this kind in ostriches, which never sell, I think, for less than £'so each, and a new use has recently been feund for them Ostrich races, with boys as jockeys, have been a popular attraction at a trotting course in Adulaide. Tiraeß are not available, but I understand that the ostriches were net as fast as trudition makes them out to be.