THE RABBIT PEST COMMISSION.

Otago Witness, Issue 1950, 4 April 1889, Page 22

THE RABBIT PEST COMMISSION.

(Pee Pbess Association.) Sydney, April 3. The commission appointed to inquire into the remedies for the destruction of rabbits have prepared their report, and it was laid on the table of the Legislative Assembly this afternoon. The commissioners deal at length with the experiments made in Pasteur's, Butcher's, and Ellis' diseases, and the general conclusions arrived at were, that while with Pasteur's disease rabbits were easily killed by additional microbes being administered in food, the disease did not spread freely from infected to healthy rabbits. To infect rabbits largely, the bodies of rabbits dying from '■ disease must be broken up by decomposition or by agency of carrion j birds, in order to eet the microbes free, and

the commissioners concluded that destrudtion on a large scale was necessary to feed the animals on microbes, therefore rabbits were as effectually killed by poison. They added that they could not recommend the dissemination of a disease at present not existing in the colonies, which had proved disastrous in other countries. It is doubted whether the disease tried at the Tintinallogy run is one likely to be communicated among rabbits. The disease of bladder worm as found in New Zealand is referred to by the commissioners, and they agree with the opinions expressed by Professor Thomas, of Auckland, that the disease might be usefully employed, though it was not expected that more than a small percentage of the pest would be killed by inoculation. One disadvantage to the use of the bladder worm disease was that under certain conditions it was dangerous to other animals, and even man would not be free from danger: the commissioners therefore could not recommend this as a remedy. Reference is made in the report to the rabbit scab discovered in South Australia, and its use as a remedy for the destruction of rabbits, but the commissioners do not encourage its use with any hope of success in dry districts. Altogether 1400 different schemes for the destruction of rabbits have been submitted to the commission. Their definite conclusions are that the responsibility of removing the pest must rest with the landowners, and the State to be under similar responsibility as regards Crown lands. The rabbit pest made a continuance of the annual leases of Crown lands impossible, and no finality to rabbit destruction could be obtained without it being made compulsory to erect proper rabbit fences. The system of professional trappers and State bonuses the commissioners think is radically bad, and they recommend that legislation be introduced to compel landowners and lessees of infected districts to join in defraying the cost of erecting rabbit fences. Wellington, April 3. The Minister of Lands received the following cablegram from Mr Bell, the New Zealand representative on the Rabbit Commission at Sydney :— " The commissioners' final report on disease schemes was signed to-day; am posting you report to-morrow. The- report is definitely against any extensive benefit being available from Pasteur's, Coleman Phillips'.Butcher's, or Watson's disease, or any disease suggested. It is hoped that the final report on 140 other suggestions will be ready in a fortnight. The commission will then be dissolved."