IMPRESSIONS OF VISITORS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLIII, Issue XLIII, 14 September 1909, Page 3

IMPRESSIONS OF VISITORS.

"■WIDE" (REMImSejS. - ■ ■ ". ' ' __„_ ~.*'<s* - ■ ;- From time to time Now Zealanderi ! have had' amusing evidence- of "im pressions" left on travellers by tlii people and the natural^ features, o: these islands. Th"o visitors wlii rush through this cbuntry in' searcl of 'material for' serious books and ponderous articles for nWspapcn and magazines occasionally write something likely to raise rStieh laugh ter hero. Some ' quant versions o'l "Pelorus Jack," foi; example, have been served up for;;.tho inhabitants of outside countries, :but the chroni cles ab'ov\t the grampus ' are e"clipsi'd by a. narrative about- New Zealand's carnivorous rabbits. "On .20th. July serious Germans who;' read, tho serious "Frankfurter ' "Zeitiing": ,iv thi Fatherland were given an- 7 aiticle.iDn "Modern New -Zealand" by Mr Giis tavo Mayer. "Wild Animals,", he stated, ' ' are not to be found with the exception of one, which" was import ed by some over-zealous sportsman namely, the rabbit. In consequence of its natural fecundity it has spread with dismal rapidity all over the country, and represents- now a grave t danger to sheep-farming, wheref or millions are spent tcrconibat with the evil. Far-reaching statutes have been specially framed and high- premiums are. paid for the destruction of this pest, on account of ■ which the enormous large farms must be fenced in with high wire netting? reaching deep' into the ground. ■ Tn spite of all this, tifsusnnds of sheep are killed by these desftroctivo r.ab bits, after which tl.ey eat It-lie^ kidneys out of their body. ' '. a"~'- correspondent, who sent this translation of the peculiar passage to tfc.---"Post;" mentioned" that tho nrtie.l" which ocenpiod two and a h;ilf c 1 lumns, was otherwise vory respect able. jtfr Mayor was in Now Zen land about two years ago He may have been the victim of a joke, 01 he may have' confused the poaeefu' vegetarian habits of the rabbit «viU the alleged flesh eating proponaifipof the kea