FIFTY YEARS AGO

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21396, 20 October 1934, Page 10

FIFTY YEARS AGO

PESTS CAUSE CONCERN RABBITS AND CODLIN MOTHS Two pests which are still prevalent in New Zealand—the rabbit and the codlin moth—were causing concern 50 years ago. The Herald ,of October 21, ISS4. stated: — "Some interesting. information in regard to the best means of exterminating rabbits is contained in the evidence given before the Sheep and Rabbits Act Committee. The witnesses were almost unanimously in favour of poisoning and the use of ferrets, and against rabbiters and dogs. Captain Raymond, the discoverer of the oat phosphorus system of poisoning rabbits, which, according to most witnesses, has proved a great success, said he was actually ruined by the rabbits on his run in Southland, and made his discovery too late to save his own property." The same issue of the Herald contained the following paragraph:— "Our Hamilton correspondent writes: —The orchardists of New Zealand owe a debt of gratitude to the New Zealand Herald for the promptitude with which it brought to the notice of the Government the late large importation of apples from America _ infected with the codlin moth. proclamation issued by the Government prohibiting the importation of apples and pears affected by this pest, in any of its stages, from America and elsewhere, has been received with lively satisfaction in . Waikatn. where hundreds are directly interested in the growth of fruit, and apple-growing is becoming everv year a more and more important industry."