THE RABBIT REPORT.

Otago Witness, Issue 1911, 6 July 1888, Page 10

THE RABBIT REPORT.

The annual report on the rabbit nuisance, for the year ended March 31 last, recently presented to Parliament is not by any means reassuring. Mr Bayley, the Superintending In*pector, states that the situation is little altered from previous years. "In some localities a decided headway is being made against the 'pest, whilst in others, although a check is being} kept upon a rapid^ increase, yet there is no concealing the fact that each year rab« bits are slowly but surely encroaching upon hitherto clear country." It is especially noted that little or no headway can be made in the huge areas bordering the Wakatipu and Wanaka lakes. The rabbits, as a matter of fact, are in possession, and the sheep runs in many instances have had to be abandoned. The Crown lands, Mr Bayley remarks, still create the largest expenditure the department has to meet, and he reiterates very much what he said on the subject in his last year's report. In this he pointed out that the duties of the Rabbit department should only be to see that rabbits are destroyed ; whereas, under existing conditions, it has really to become the qxiasi owner of huge areas and to de« stroy the rabbits thereon, whilst another department administers these lands and receives any revenues that accrue." The Crown Lands should he thinks be debited with the outlay of keeping down the pest. A keener perception of the position " would then, he affirms, "be produced," and would tend to expedite the disposal of areas which, remaining unoccupied, become overrun before the Rabbit department can deal with them. There seems certainly good sense in this. The unoccupied Crown lands in several districts are literally breeding grounds of the rodent, and it is practically impossible to keep them down in the adjacent country. In regard to methods of repression— which by the way are nearly as numerous and apparently nob much more effective than cures for. a coldMr Bayley states that authority having been given to purchase all ferrets bred, at a certain price, ferret breeding has been largely gone into ; 3600 having been bred under the conditions of the contract, 2755 of- which have been distributed in Otago ; 4000 have also been liberated by private owners — 700 in the North Island and the remainder in the South.' The reports are generally, hesays,very satisfactory, and he fully anticipates that the number bred and released next summer will establish beyond doubt the usefulness of the ferret as a factor in the destruction of the rabbit." A shipment of stoats and weasels has been recently imported by the Government, the greater number of which were released on the boundary of Canterbury and Otago, and besides these several have arrived for private owners. The utility of the natural enemy will thus be tested during this season. Mr Bayley refers to the accrediting a delegate from New Zealand to attend and report vpon the investigations in course of being made in Australia as to the feasibility of introducing disease as an exterminator. "The reward offered by the New South Wales Government has had a most beneficial effect ; suggestions of all kinds have been received by the Commission from all quarters, and I am firmly of opinion that it will be from this source that) permanent relief will come. One thing is positively certain, that all means employed up to the present time will be duly weighed and their value rightly appraised or determined; under any circumstances a fund of valuable .information will be obtained that must tend to operate beneficially." In conclusion, Mr Bayley notes that the latest returns show a slight increase in the numher of sheep depastured on what were the worstinfestedrunsof the South, and this on unimproved as well as improved lands ; " but more than this is wanted : at present the expense of keeping the pest in check is still too great a tax on simply pastoral countryi" Some interesting statistics are appended to the report. The estimated area of Crown lands dealt with during the year was 2,300,560 acres ; the number of rabbitskins exported during the year, 12,125,891, the value of which was £108,229 ; the amount expended for destroying rabbits on Crown lands was £2473 10s Bd.