RAT PLAGUE MENACE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20131, 17 December 1928, Page 9

RAT PLAGUE MENACE.

BRITAIN'S BIG PROBLEM.

HUGE ANNUAL BILL.

TWENTY MILLION POUNDS

A recent estimate of the number of rats in Britain puts the standing popula-

tion of these vermin at 40,000,000,. Naturally, all such estimates must !>e simply a matter of guesswork, but when

it is remembered that the area of England, Scotland and Wales amounts to nearly 57,000,000 acres, the estimate does pot appear to be unduly imagiua-

The figure means that there is an average of considerably less than one rat to the acre, says Mr. F. Bonnett, in an article in the Daily Telegraph, and if it is allowed that many of these acres could not support a singlo head of vermin it must also be admitted that in many parts of the country a single acre supports, not only one rat, but hundreds. Even in the most sparsely inhabited areas of the open country' there must be dis-~ tricts where the average rat population constantly exceeds the one-rat-per-acre figure, in the towns the figure must always be much higher, for there the vermin have every opportunity of finding food and shelter and an even better chance to increase and multiply. Unless they are constantly being harried rats increase at a more rapid rate than any other creature in the country except mice. The damage they commit is also well lenown, not only in regard to the quanity of food they consume, but as concerns that which they contaminate and destroy. It is probably, no exaggeration to suggest that for every pound of Ifood actually eaten 101b, are wasted or so damaged as to make them useless. Annual £20,000,000 BUI. Again, it would be no exaggeration to suggest that every rat in the country consumes or spoils at least 10s worth of goods in the course of a twelvemonth — about ono-third of a pennyworth per day. In the matter of repairs and precautionary measures, too, large sums are expended every year solely on account of the rat. . ' -. > ■ Thus the annual rat-bill very probably amounts to the by no means inconsiderable sum of £20,000,000, and this does' not take into account tho damage committed by mice, which in some districts at least are even more plentiful than rats, and capable under favourable circumstances of doing almost as much damage. Both rats and mice, by the contamination of food alone, are certainly capable of causing disease and illness among mankind. The chief of the troubles in regard to rats dates from the time when the-brown or Norwegian rat first gained a foothold in Britain. Before that there was the smaller and much less mischievous black rat, which, though still carrying on a precarious existence here and there, has long since been practically eaten out of house and home by its much more powerful relative. . The black rat was, or is, a simple and. as compared with its brown cousin, an almost inoffensive creature, with none of tho daring or persistence of the latter and little of its cunning. , The rat problem would be a simple one ff >ve had nothing more serious to deal with than the Musrattus of bygone days. As it is, Britain is still faced with a menace the urgency of which very few people in this country seem to rescognise. "Rat Week," which, so far as it goes, is a step in the right direction, is too commonly regarded as a sort of annual joke odi the part of the powera-that.be. Even those who take it more or less seriously are a little inclined to suppose that if they observe it in some sort of fashion they will have completely fulfilled their duty for the time being. Drawback to a "Jtat Week."

The drawback to an annual function such as this is that it is apt to giver, the impression that it apocial efforts toward vermin destruction are made during <\ single week, in the year little or nothing need be done at other time#. This is by no means the case; " Rat Week" is merely meant as a sort of reminder to the British citizen that it is his duty to his neighbour and to himself to do everything that is possible at all times to keep the most insidious of all the enemies at bay.

Part of this reminder takes the form of a notification to-all whom it may concern that there is' in existence such a tiling as a Rats and Mice Destruction Act. This measure provides that it is a punishable offence for any owner or occupier of property, whether in town or country, to harbour, or to neglect to destroy, the vermih which may frequent his preiiiises. It is greatly to be feared, however, says Mr. Bonnett, that in spite of this, to say the best of it, ephemeral publicity, the Act conveys but little meaning to anybody.