RATS ON THE MARCH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20454, 4 January 1930, Page 2 (Supplement)

RATS ON THE MARCH.

FROM COUNTRY TO TOWN. AI. a certain time of the year, declares the British Ministry of Agriculture, rata move iu from the country to flic town. The- harvest is gathered in. The nights are growing cold. The rats believe they will lie bett'T off in town, so to town they troop :n thousands. Jit this respect the. rats are like the race gangs of the turf, when the flat-racing season is over, who reinforce during the winter the area thieves and pilferers and beggars infesting London. But, while the human rogues sneak back, the rats come bodly in organised armies. Once at a London Overside lire at Wapping the writer saw a black .mass moving like a wave across the river. It was a horde of rats swimming away for dear life from the burning warehouse. The country rats move into town in the same organised battalions. They have their scouts 011 ahead, and they move thousands strong. The Ministry of Agriculture each year prepares to meet them and in Bat Week it organises a counter-attack which meets the rats at the outset of the raid, before they have time to dig themselves in.