The Rabbit Question. TO THE EDITOR.

Otago Witness, Issue 1851, 17 August 1893, Page 7

The Rabbit Question. TO THE EDITOR.

Sm,— l have read with considerable interest the correspondence which has appeared in your recent issues on the rabbit question. Much has been said and written about the rabbits, and many plans and so-called exterminators have been tried to clear'them out of New Zealand, but everything so far has failed, and they seem to be increasing yet. , _„ , , Of all plans for rabbit destruction I think none have been more generally and extensively tried than poisoning, and I think it must be admitted that it has been, and no doubt always will be, a failure. If the rabbits would take poison in any known form, of course we could very soon administer it and our difficulty would vanish ; but even'though poison, however well disguised,

be freely spread, only a very snull proportion of the rabbits take it, and it is acknowledged by the poisoners that there can be saved pf the skins at the most only about 40 or 50 per cent. The other skins are lost through the rabbits dying unde. - ground. This in itself is a serious argument against poisoning, but it must also be remembered it cannot cope'with the difficulty, and so long as poisoning is solely relied on, bo long will the rabbits increase. But I must also most emphatically protest against the manner in which the most violent and powerful poisonß are scattered about. If I Bhould want a little strychnine or arsenic I might possibly get it at a chemist's, but only with difficulty. He would take my name and ask my purpose ; but now any man or boy, however careleßS or inexperienced, may go and purchase at almost any country storo a tin of toxa or any other of the advertised rabbit poisons. Will the poison only act on rabbits, forsooth ? No, Sir ; these poisons are most deadly, and I am simple enough to think on a.ny human being if carefully administered. People will open their eyeßto this fact. Some timeago I indignantly demanded that a trade in these goods should only be carried on under the most careful supervision. I am reminded of an answer I beard a Wairarapa storekeeper make when he was asked " if he bad sold any arsenic lately?" This was at the time of the mysterious poisoning case at the wedding in Pahiatua, when Mr Dickson and, I think, another died. "No," he replied, "not in small quantities, but often sold hundredweights at a time." No wonder the police never traced, by the means of chemists' books, the murderer. No doubt the rabbit has been a terrible expense to the runholders and the farmers also, but we must not altogether forget the employment at very good wages that it has provided for hundreds of men. I imagine that the unemployed question would have been a much more serious one for the Government if the rabbits bad not been in New Zealand. I think, Sir, that as the rabbits are here, ifwecanfind other methods for their destruction which will pay the country and the people infinitely better, and I claim be more effective than poisoning, that these methods ought at least to have a fair and even liberal trial. The method I wish to advocate is the tinning The rabbiters I know can earn good money, some 10s, 153, and even as much as 20s per day. Most of the hands are paid liberally, and generally can earn better wages than at otner occupations ; but the factories and their owners do not get fair play, for they open in February or -March, when the skins are of comparatively little value, and just when they get well into the swing the skins improve and the factory begins to pay ; then some one starts poisoning, the men are all paid off, and the factory, putting through 1500 or 2000 rabbita per day, is closed down. Now the rabbit may be aud is a terrible nuisance, but I say boldly (I know this^will be scoffed at) that it is not such a desperate plague as it is made out. Every one knows what price rabbits fetch in Europe, and we all know the skins are valuable. Now if the factories could remain open for seven or eight months in the year more men would follow the ocoupation of rabbiting, and the producers could create or find a demand for the tinned rabbits, for a market there must be ; but how can we expect people at the antipodes to buy the tinned meat when they know that strychnine is scattered broadcast to poison rabbits ? It is all very well to assure them that the factories close when poisoning begins ; they simply don't believe it and so will not buy. I do not think it possible to destroy the rabbits in New Zealand for some considerable time, but I do think that, stop all poisoning, let the factories work for eight months instead of three, and you will find that though the rabbits breed rapidly, they would decrease more rapidly, and I think in a few years there would be no difficulty to cope with. » I believe if poisoning were stopped that in most cases the factories would agree to find good rabbiters if necessary. In some cases I know they would, and then the farmers would oiv could take the place of their beloved rabbit inspectors, and could'see that what the factory undertook was vigorously carried on by their employe or rabbiter, and this without asking a salary from the Government.—l am, &c , B. W. H. Mataura, August 11. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, — From the tone of the speeches in the House the other day it appears, and particularly from Mr Buckland s remarks, that rabbit inspectors up north must be a very bad lot, when a clean sweep of the whole fraternity is advocated. As the Southland Inspectorate was recruited from the cream of the North Island, we here cstn endorse Mrßuckland'sdenunciation of the general incapability of the northern appointees. It is remarkable that in the epitome of the speeches no reference was made to the capacity of our chief inspector. He was supposed to have done astonishing things in clearing rabbits off Mount Royal, and this was given by Mr M'Kenzie as the chief reason for appointing him as head of our department. Now anyone who knows anything about Mount Royal and has any common "savvy" at all would 'find no difficulty in keeping rabbits down, more particularly when it was some one else who was finding the money to pay for their destruction. Then, too, theie was a rabbit factory close to the estate's borders, and no doubt the proprietor could tell us how many of the Mount Koyal rabbits were boiled down there. But why should Chief Inspector Ritchie condemn the factories as harbouring or farming rabbits unless his own experience lay in that way, and he suspects others of saving the rabbits in the off season? In Southland it must be admitted the factories have done noble work, and working men have reason to bless their erection as well as the settler, who gets his rabbits killed off with profit and expedition. If the Joint Committee of the House on s'took and rabbits take up the question this session some evidence other than that available in Wellington should be taken as to how to deal with the rabbit pest and the suitability or otherwise .of factories. For my part I know in 'certain localities a factory is an institution which 'may be described as a blessing .to many hundreds of working men who would otherwise be eking out a very scanty subsistence after harvest and before- the wool season commences. If, instead of on the useless but still continued summer phosphorus poisoning so lovingly indulged in by the Southland inspectordn road and railway lines, the money thus spent went in sub« sidising a factory, more money would be put in circulation, more employment would be given, and more hearty interest would be taken in keeping down the rabbits. It is bard enough upon a farmer to have his sheep- carrying capacity reduced, but it is harder to be still furtherburdened with keeping up a department which will lash him into extra- expease at busy seasons such as lambing, shearing, and harvesting, and during the latter is the time that the Southland Inspectorate wakes up and makes itself übiquitous and causes needless trouble and annoyance. The records of the past two years will show that only about March the inspector gets on the warpath, and this perhaps is his only chance, as the factories open in April, and loose hands then begin to get about and settle on blocks for the autumn rabbiting, rendering his attentions unnecessary.— l am, Ac, Gore, August 14. TO THE EDITOR. Sir,— lt is now a good while since I condescended to rub noses with your able scribe " Agricola," and now it pleases me to think that it is in accord with his wish. I have been somewhat concerned myself of late about bunny and how best to deal with him. I have sought all the information possible to acquire the desired tip, and have carefully weighted it, and now sum up the pool. Unfortunately I have had to alter my former opinion in favour of those of the less fortunate. The experience thus gained brings the balance down flop in favour of the Government as against local boards — i.e., rabbifc boards— which I learn have never given satisfaction yet, and have in most cases had to give up the ghost iv favour of what proved more efficacious {i.e., Johnny Government) in precisely the same way as was the case ere scab was effectually dealt with. Re double-banking our lamb crops. I tried precisely the same dodge two years ago under exactly similar circumstances. As a result I got 19 per cent, lambs for the first crop, "and next year 23 per cent. This, of course, wasn't good enough,— l am, &c, Jack Of All Trades