PHOSHORUS POSONING CONDEMNED

Otago Witness, Issue 956, 16 May 1889, Page 7

PHOSHORUS POSONING CONDEMNED

1 Editor Witness,—Si* jln a late issna of .tfca Witness I am reported to have made the startling assertion that phosphorus poisoning was thft worst thing ever introduced iota; Stew Zealand. I admit having tasde the assertion, and it will yet be found that my view is the correct 'one. I along with all the rest hailed the introduction of rabbit poisoning as the cure for the plague; but we did not see far enough. Thefnil effeot, however, is now lying spread out before us in the experience of the last 10 years or so; and what do we find ? Well, the plague i» stHl here—we are still on the outlook for another cure. We have* poisoned the native natural enemies—the weka and the cat.; we have imported the ferret, stoat, weasel, and mongoose, and are bui'Jy poisoning them. The hawk, fortanately, does' noteattne part of the rabbit affected by the poison, or te proof against it, and has, sines rabbits came $ere, increase fifty fold. Had poison never been flsed the other enemies would no doubt have increased in the same manner, and then what an army of allies we would have had no#. But they decline to act with an ally that scatter* death and destruction alike on friend and foe. But let me give yotinvim from another point. A rabbit can be caught at 6 ptofit in the wintertime—and that is the time tfiiea hb is poisoned. His skin will pay for catching him ', b*a n rabbit* are poisoned fo* r oat of five skffitf are pever foand— they are either destroyed by thebswks or die in the holes, or in rough tussocky ground!. Wow* besides che skin vve have the flesh, which can be tinned and exported at a profit; bo that instead of looking on the rabbit as a plague, m»y it not" be made a valuable asset? Had we started factories for tinning rabbits here and there #11 over the infested districts, we would have beea in a far better position now tha» we are ni present. Look at the employment it would have given, creating wealth for the colony too, and that would be better than making political railways that lead nowbore and never pay for the gceaee. But another evil in rabbit^poisoning is, it must be done in the winter to be successful. When one oomplains to a neighbour about his rabbits, he says, "Wait until the season." That means, wait till feed is scarce-— wait until hunger forces the rabbits to cat the poison. Well, if you do, what about feed for the stock until the grass grows? Eoes it not look like locking the stable door after the steed is stolen. v And now look at the effect of poison on the native and imported game. Well, the native game was not worth mentioning, perhaps; but the imported game—the partridge, for instance^ which was the most numerous here, are now never seen or heard. We may s&y the game is destroyed. The poison has done what it ougbfe not to have done, and left undone what it ought to have done. I may conclude this letter by another " startling assertion "— that the time will come when there will be a penalty of some* thing like £50 inflicted on any person found poisoning rabbirs on Crown or other lands within, the colony of New Zealand ; and that uudet somesystem of mixed rabbit and sheepfarminfj our pastoral estate will give a better return than ever it did, even in^ita palmiest daya.-r Yonrs &c, J. M'QuflßK. Enapdale. May 10.