The Rabbit Question. TO THE EDITOR.

Otago Witness, Issue 2058, 3 August 1893, Page 8

The Rabbit Question. TO THE EDITOR.

Sib, — I was pleased to see that my former communication was favourably noticed by "Sheepfarmer," who made some very reasonable remarks in reference to the rabbit question. I fully agree with him in the views he expresses in reference to rabbit factories and small boys. What is wanted is to kill the rabbit. No magic need be used ; but what is required is to make it worth while for those interested to kill him. My suggestions on the matter are somewhat different in the manner of the campaign to those of "Sheepfarmer," although we are unquestionably at one in the desire to be rid of the plague which is fast eating [away our resources, and rendering us less able to combat with the enemy. In the first place I would suggest that bunny be made an outlaw, in the full meaning of the word — i.e., that wherever seen, he should become the property of the person who catches him. (2) That when caught and destroyed the person who has done the work shall be sufficiently rewarded. (3) That any one found knowingly protecting rabbits should be subjected to a heavy penalty. (4) That Government become the purchaser of all skins largo and small — large and small skins to be of the same value, and- got up in proper order, so that the sale of the Bame may return as much of the expenditure as possible. (5) That the rabbit - purchasing fund be procured by means of a rabbit land tax according to acreage, all lands to be taxed' alike, and supplemented by Government vote. (6) That all settlers should be given the power of a rabbit inspector. At present rabbits are only fostered, and our largeruns in most cases arenothing more than rabbit warrens, for the reason that immediately after poisoning rabbits are scarce, and the price paid by runholders is so low that it does not pay. Suckers not being purchased at all, jjhe professional r&bbiter by no means molests them, and this is only reasonable, for why Bhould he destroy for another's benefit what if lpft alone will ultimately be a benefit to himself P It could not be expected that he would do so, and it would seem by the inducements held out by many runholders that they do not want the rabbits destroyed. Fancy a man having to trap 100 rabbits and properly clean and dry the skins for 8s 6d. Fortunately this price is rare, but some runs through the interior have thousands of acres that are scarcely ever seen by a rabbiter. Then again oar Government reserves are a fair specimen of rabbit warrens, and many of those who lease commonages are nothing more than professional rabbit cultivators. And why P . Because the commonages are taken at a low price, suckers are of no value, and summer skins scarcely pay for their cleaning. Thus no inducement is offered but the promptings of honesty and philanthropy, which commodities are not sown broadcast over New Zealand more than over other countries. What is wanted is to make, the rabbifcskin of current value, and give a price that will induce the person to catch the pest. It .would settle the labour question andwould be the means, i£ properly carried put, of settling many wast J

places of New Zealand and assisting in keeping within our shores thousands of pounds that are yearly leaving us for wire netting, &c, to protect us, notwitstanding all of which the plague still increases. I shall return to the subject later on.— l am, &c, A. H. T. Cromwell, July 26.

TO THE EDITOB.

Sib,— l have read with some interest the letters which have appeared in your columns on this subject, and note the unanimity with which the act and the department are denounced. We have your own comment per leaderette, and the experience of writers from Cromwell, Ophir, Oamaru, and Waihemo, and the general view taken is that the act is a failure. As I have some considerable experience in matters pertaining to rabbits in Otago and Southland, perhaps you may grant me space for some observations on the working of the act in Southland. The present act is a workable enough act, but it requires administration in a sympathetic and just manner. The inspectors being endowed with large powers, should be men of even judgment, and be capable of administering their duties with a calm and judicial mind, taking into account the circumstances, the seasons, and the various other causes which allow an abnormal increase in the rabbit pest. But what do we find P Just the reverse. The inspector is as often as not a failure at some other calling. He is withal a jolly good fellow, but occasionally something must be done to justify his appointment, and hence the outrageous stens often taken to hurry many a hard-working settler into the Resident Magistrate's Court and fine him for not destroying his rabbits. It was confidently thought by many who were disgusted with theadministration of the Rabbit Act that when Mr Ritchie was selected as chief of the department a better state of things would obtain. ' lam sorry to say that this has not been the case. Since Mr Ritchie's appoinment the rabbits ata more numerous — you can put it down to anyc'auße you'like-^and the area over which they have spread is . very much larger. What about their recent appearance in South Canterbury ? Some months ago, a friend writing to me from that locality said they were multiplying in hundreds of thousands, and advancing oh. new country daily, and not an effort was being put forth by the inspectors to prevent their increase. In fact,, my informant added, **This state of things is wholly and solely due to the incapacity of the Rabbit department." They did not realise what their duties were, and the anxious inspections they should have made, and the means they should have put in train to ©ope with, the advance, were left untiL.it was -top late, and now the j matter has come uj> hef ore the House, and the opinion is expressed that even the appointment of two inspectors will result in little good. But it was of Southland more particularly I wished to speak, and 1 shall pojntout a few of the vagaries of the Rabbit department and \ what' I believe to be responsible for its failure! \ My experience dates back to the time when Mr Inspector Macdonald was in power. How «r in what manner he was deposed I need n.ot refer to,but I would ask this : Were the, rabbits any worse in his time fhan trader the presenj;, regime P The answer will come that they are noW'Worse in patches, and that they have extended more and thickly over the same area., Then Mr Ashton Wachsmann was appointed," and here we recognised a wide awake, energetic man, and one who did not smile' approval to your face and straightway turn aside and send a " blue Peter" to your registered address, as is done in the case of some of our later friends of the department. - For a while Mr Wachsmann threw himself heart and soul into the work. Every corner and nook of his large district was visited', and those who- did not straighten themselves up and proceed energetically to business were dealt with rather, on the whole, as t appeared, unmercifully. Mr Wachsmann, like others who have casually given the subject attention, thought it possible in two or three years to exterminate the pest.' He did not succeed, and finding the appointment irksome resigned, and went north just when he had mastered the details and should have been in a good position to make a just and thoughtful administrator. .Though we . had . plenty of capable men in Southland the North Island must needs be ransacked to find a man to succeed Mr Wachsmann. Mr Bree, the acting chief, a man old in the department, is superseded by one who has had no experience of rabbits 'or stock, and whose advent is vigorously objected to, and Mr Richardson, then Minister for Lands, is soundly, rated for his making the appointment, and the question is asked him when meeting his constituents "whether it is true that Mr Turner, the newly - appointed inspector, had been drafted off to Wairarapa to view some rabbits so that he might be able to distinguish his charge from horned goats when he came south." Mr Richardson of course said that he had nothing to do with the appointment, as he had delegated his powers to the chief inspectors.

Under the system in vogue when Mr Turner was appointed every inspector had control of a certain district, and had an assistant to sco that the act was duly carried out, and, on the whole, all went well enough. The new inspector was a mild-mannered young man, who came into the district unpopular, as it was contended the appointment should have fallen to Mr Bree, as senior agent and acting inspector. However, on the assumption of office by Mr Ritchie as head of the department a change of arrangements was made. The Minister said he found the department disorganised and with no proper or capable head to it, and the subinspectors anywhere but attending to their duties. So far this was sweeping if not altogether true. We looked for it that a better system would be put in force, and this is what happened. The inspectors were reduced in number, the districts for which they were to be responsible were made expansive — one man having to be responsible for the whole of Southland, for instance, which was rather a big order. Instead of sub-inspectors a host of agents were appointed, whose wages were fixed at 10s per day, "with actual travelling expenses when on duty," for which they had to produce vouchers — no voucher no allowance. These agents were irresponsible beings, with no power whatever. To all intents and purposes they are nonentities. They may report a defaulting settler to their head office, and if the inspector is in an amiable frame he' will put his horse and baggage on board the train at Invercargill, and halting at the nearest railway station to the delinquent's place/he will personally inspect the property complained of. If it is bad he may or may not take action, but he will lecture the erring one, who will, if wise, take ib all in silence, suggest a drink, and wink the other eye. This is no fanciful picture, it is actual fact. No action is taken, and the horse and baggage are put into the waiting truck and railed back to Invercargill— itmay be from Kingston ; it may be from Riverton or Orepuki ; it may be from Arthurton, JRiversdale, or Lnmsden. I am bound to say that on inspection tours the inspector and his horse are more constantly, .on the train than in the back country, and the mileage averaged on the railway would about equal that on county roads. If this constitutes inspection then it id

well to have a name for it. .The agent may have all his trouble in vain because the inspector does not see it with his eyes, or the mark is not safe enough to hit at without some injury to one's self perhaps. -

Inspection over such an extensive areaas a farce, and nothing more. The agents can perambulate at their own sweet will. If they get a touch of influenza or measles or meefc vita any injury in consequence of.their inspection their wages are stopped for tne day : they are not out. lam writing of what I know to be a fact. Again, if in the busy time— the poisoning season, when days are short and roads bad — an agent [wishes to "get over his ground and. get his settlers to do good work in'winter, and instead of riding over wretched roads, *&c, to an outlying point he takes the train, he has to pay his own train fare, and he i 3 curtly told thai he is not to "expediate" the work in any way, which means, I suppose, he is to orawl around on an "old crock" of a horse from one cockatoo to another, and never liven up and get through the inspection of his district. Does an agent want a holiday he is allowed so many days' leave without pay. If he goes to his local' show he loses his ten shillings unless he falsifies his diary and says he was inspecting somebody's sections. Thus is the poor agent treated, and what is the result ? — a don't-eare-a-fig sort of feeling grows up. If he wishes to shake up some dilatory one, tea to one the inspector never comes near him. When a farmer has done good work he gets no satisfaction. The willing worker has the more put on him ; the laggard and absentee disoovers*that a fine is a cheaper way of getting out of his liabilities under the act than any other. Poor pay, inconsequent work, the opportunities to loaf around and " fix " your diary — these are the awards of the rabbit agent. If he stays at a farmhouse, as perforce he may find it necessary to do, and, tips the white-haired boy a shilling or half a crown, he has to get a receipt or his wages are thereby reduced the amount of his contribution. Under these circumstances rabbit agents can never be anything but an excresence upon our consolidated revenue. They are as good as nobody, not on account of themselves or their labours, but on account of there having no power to work by, and the shabby treatment they are subject to. The inspector, instead of attending to his inspectorial duties, is addressing sheep tax envelopes in Invercargill that a cadet at a few pounds a year could manage, and here we have an example of retrenchment. The inspector, instead of being round with his agent making personal examinations of land complained of, is mayhap doing the "Wantwood Week," or admiring the runs at Birchwood. Now, I don't object at all to his taking any retaxation, the cares and worries, calculations and' anxieties of his office may make this an absolute safeguard for his health and sanity, but when his. agent with a penchant for the same style of recreation can only get it upon loss of his day's' wages it is just a little too too. This marks the difference between an inspector and an agent in pursuit of pleasure— one draws £250 or £30,0 and travelling allowance the whole time ; fjh.e other looses his few shillings a day and p.aya his own ex's, and also subscribes to the pac^, whichperhaps the other doesn't. lam writing of actual facts which have come under my observation.

Now for a remedy — sweep away the present department and appoint practical, fair minded, independent men at a salary with such' an allowance for horses, shoeing, livery, &c, that will make them so. Place them in charge of moderately-sized districts, so that they can be comfortably inspected in three months' time, carefully and methodically; and make the inspector responsible" for the keeping down of rabbits to fair' proportions within his boun-. daries.. By fair proportions I mean so that 1 the numbers of rabbits seta at any time are not such as to destroy feed for stock to any appreciable extent. Within the radius of an inspector's duties extra inspection should be granted in winter time, and every person' who did not then use every effort to cope with the rabbits should be dealt with without mercy.' Follow this up by giving a substantial bonus for all skins, big and little, caught in October and November and until next winter, and I feel sure no trouble would be experienced with rabbits. More rabbits are bred on Government lands than anywhere, and speaking for Southland, no reserves have hitherto been so neglected, unless they were* quite within the notice of residents or within hail of the main road. "■-',- While we have the present act in force it is only by doing as above suggested that any headway can be made against the rabbits. The inspectors must be tried, and .earnest men with something of a judicial temperament, for the present act takes out of the hands of the magistrates any power except perhaps to fix the amount of .the fine, and even in 'this they are directed by the department also to take into consideration the size of a man's .property, which, as anyone knows, if it be a large one, may be comparatively clean, except yon certain frontages and vantage points. Here is' a sample of what we have to put up with at the hands of the'present Southland department, and the statements can be verified by official documents :—: —

In the early part of one March a company was summoned for not keeping down rabbits. Evidence was given that only fair work had been done by the company in winter, and little or nothing in spring and summer. The case looked black against the company,, when their lawyer asked the chief witness (the rabbit agent) whether he was aware that right in the middle of the company's ground there was a bush reserve 'of nearly 200 acres. The agent said he was.' Counsel asked whether there]were rabbits on this reserve. The agent replied that it was swarming with them. " Had, anything been done to clear the rabbits off this Government section ? " * The agent replied, "Nothing whatever." The company practically

' gained the day, the' magistrate grimly, remark' ing "That it was a pity the Government 1 icould not be fined for not keeping down the rabbits on their own ground." But the^sequel showed that the agent had been in correspondence with his department respecting this particular reserve, and had been instructed not to : move in the matter of destroying rabbits" thereon..' And further on, this same regent from 'that time until July following not an iota "of work was ' done by the department to clear that particular reserve whioh, as a .-breedings ground, nas hardly an equal in Southland, 'life names and dates anddooument'respecting thii and similar matters are to hand any time for insiiebtion; ho the mutter is not-* fanoy one. -Surely ttie - increase m the rabbits can-be traced to such deplorable mismanagement as tikis and^otheS more 'glaring cases. . .But time as well as spaed would fail me to tell of all the vagaries, the weaknesses, and the incapacity manifested iii the administration- of -the act in Southland. Farmers are a long-suffering people; as it is, the squatters- have .never been attacked. In fact they ignore apparently any intimation from - the department, and pursue the destruction of rabbits m their own way and in their own good time. - ■ . •* v, 6 I have just touched on the fringe of "what I believe to be the serious drawback to the' working of the act here. It is agood enough act until we -contrive a better, but it-lacks a capable administrator, and the sooner the 1 Secretary of Agriculture does something to justify his appointment the better.' His- treatment of agents is nothing short of scandalous. They are not civil- servants, and are liable' to be sacked on short notice, 1 and have no redress, though no fault may be found in their capacity or ability to do their several rounds. They get no holidays, they are harassed in every way, and their wage is not sufficient" to 1 keep, a man m a decent suit of . clothes and keep one sound active horse going, let alone Wo, which is an , absolute necessity where country is rough and. the district remote. — I am,' &0.,' 0. W. K.

Cfore, July 27.'

A Dash of the Best Shibh Biiboftli-Some. 12 months ago a ■ well-known' 'aadtf highlyesteemed breeder of Clydesdales-^Mjr Bark, of Brunstane— startled the purists of the Clydesd?l( L w ? tld b ? boldl y declaring, that "a dash* of the best shire blood " might* be usedwith the greatest advantage in the breeding of Clydesdales. In support of his contention on this-. point, Mr Park pointed to the indisputable facfethat many of the best and best-breeding. Clydesdales of past or. present 'times', such as Prince of Fashion, ■ Castlereagh, .Handsome* Prince, and Mains qf Airie's, had a considerable " dash of the best shire blood in their veins." A good many significant things have* (writes the Nprth British Agriculturist) happened since Mr Park' heroically, avowed himself a heretic of foe same caste as ProfessorM'Call, Mr David Riddell,' and Mr Lawrence Drew. A perfect wave' of, this* dreadful heresy, appears to be sweeping over -the country just now, and, Clydesdales of the jkind that were practically boycotted only a year iot two. ago are now being regarded" with the • greatest favour. A grand Prince of Fashion filly, bred by Sir James Duke, is now one of the> cracks in the celebrated Montrave stud, and the Glasgow premium has been won: for the" second year in succession by a Blackha r ll horse with "a dash of the best shire blood' in his veins ;" MrMitohell, of Mil Meld, Has caused the sensation of the year by bringing but' a phenomenally grand twp-yeaf-bld colt bred -on the same lineß, and at Aberdeen on .Friday • the stook got. by Handsome 'Prince and Mains o£, Airies practically swept the' stakes 'in the -strongest class in" the showyard. And now on the top of all' this we find Mr Marr, oi Cairo^ brogie, than whom' no gentleman more jusjhfccommands the confidence and esteem of Clydes-^ dale breeders, declaring himself a heretic ©^the, same lines as Professor M'Oall arid' Mr- Park. All this, too, at the very time when the Council^ of .the* Clydesdale a Horsey Society have just; passed a rule decreeing that; stock got by horses, bred' oni the same lines as Prince of Fashion^ shall not'be eligible for "The Book." "But the* rules 'made by the Council of the Clydesdale Horse Society are not like those of the Modes*' and Persians which altered not; -and as soon asthe representation oE the Clydesdale Society at?: the'- council board has been , placed on a-. : thoroughly representative basis, as it. will be* before.long,' the recently-passed rule ,for shutting "The Bpok " can be rescinded before it: comes into practical operation; Evidently, aw Galileo said,' "the world does move," and the* Clydesdale world moves too. , ' How to Gbease a- Saddle.-tA correspondent writes to a contemporary :—" Hbw> toigrease & saddle and prevent the grease from coming out* on the clothes, is to the person to whom this article is. as much a necessity of life as a knife and fork, of no -small importance. . I therefore have pleasure in making known what I have found to be a^> satisfactory method. After greasing the saddlery in .the usual manner put out in the' sun for a while, then wipe over With a clean cloth, .after which take the white of an egg and smear evenly over the surface of the leather. The white of .an egg, besides preventing the grease from coming out, will, as soon as dry, give the leather a fine.polish,"

How to Dose a FiG.-^lt is not 'an easy matter to dose a pig, as you are almost sure to choke him if the medicine is administered while he is squealing. Probably the easiest way is to pass a slip noose over the "upper jaw and make it fast, to a post. ' He will pull back until the rope is tightly strained^ When his has ceased his uproar and begins to reflect, approach him gently, and between the back part of his jaws insert an old hoot from which you have cut the' toe leather. This be will at once begin to suck and chew, and while doing so you can pour in the medicine. He will swallow any quantity you please. ' '