ARE WE RABBIT FARMING.

Otago Witness, Issue 2253, 6 May 1897, Page 24

ARE WE RABBIT FARMING.

PAPER BY JOHN M'QUJSEN.

At last week's meeting of the Gore Farmers' Club, Mr'John'M'Quefe'n read the following iaterestiug paper on the rabbit question :—: — Mr Chairman, — Ab one of our previous meetings it was suggested that I should write a paper on the question of which so much is nowadays heard— ''Are we rabbit-farming?" In a weak moment I accepted the responsibility imposed by the task, aud purpose giving you tc-day the result of my labours in the direction of marshalling facts to show that

WE ARK NOT RABBIT-FARMING. At tae outoeb I was almost forced to admit to myself that a fairly strong case might be made out by those who hold ths.6 we are rabbit-farm-ing, or at least that an apparently lucrative traffic is being carried on in the buying and selling of rabbits, if not by farmers themselves, by somebody, the farmers aiding and abelting. It" t'Siis can be termed rabbit-farming, then we might a 6 well admit the charge at once, bufc we can alfo plead extenuating circumstances. You of courte will know that the rabbits were introduced into the colony under Government auspices, and were specialty protected by acb of Parliament, which prescribed all sarts of pains and penalties for the man who dare lay a linger on the sacred person oE "Brer Rabbit." In the face of present-day factß one is apt to say, when reviewing the action of the Government of that day, AVHAT AHHANT FOOLS THEY -WERE ! But let us not be hasiy in our judgment. It is all very well $o parade our wisdom atter the event, . and when we plume ourselves on the supposition thai our superior knowledge would not lead us into such a grave blunder as was committed by these responsible for the introduction of rabbits, we should look well to onr own actions and intentions to see that we with all our experience and knowledge do not fall into bs grave, if not more eerious, a blunder aa they did. As an instance of our folly, I have only to mention that, with a view to undoing all the mischief wrought by bringing j rabbi(s to New Zealand, it is proposed in all seriousness to introduce to the colony and into bunny's system the microbes of cnicken cholera. We are told by thote responsible for this monstrous proposal that these disease germs are quite harmless to everything

EXCEPTING RABBITS AND FOWLS. If I "mistake not we bave been assured several tines in years gone past by persons of a variety similar to these chicken cholera fanatics that small birds and other vermin would not only not do any harm, but would do a great deal of good. What has been the result ? You as farmers know as well as I do tbe fearful scourge these so-called blessings have proved to the colony at large. Surely this insane microbe proposal is a fitliog subject for the immediate interference of tho Government:, either by an Order-in-Council prohibiting furiher experimenting with the disease germs, or else by the institution of a Commission of Lunacy to inquire into the mental stata of the persons propounding the chick«n cholera scheme. You talk about the necessity for an Undesirable Emigrants Act, but I can assure you, if this gort of thing i 3 to go on mnch longer, it is an •• Undesirable Residents" Act that we shall need. If thi3 proposed experiment turns out a failure, upon whose shoulders will the task of catching the microbes be placed ? I trust the Gore Farmers' Club will enter an emphatic protest to-day against the crackbrained chicken cholera notion. It ia often urged that desperate diseases require desperate remedies. This does not apply to the rabbit trouble now ; we have the ball at our feet, and what was onee — on account of our inexperience and want of knowledge — a fearful corse has been transformed into a blessing — if not to farmers, then to others. In times gone by the farmer, upon whom the onus of fighting the all-conquering rabbit was placed, plodded on against fearful odds. But gradually the farmer gained knowledge, and with it experience, and bo obtained au advantage over his relentless

four-footed foe ; so the struggle for existence is resulting in a

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST ; nofe necessarily by the extermination of the weaker combatant, but by the foroing of it into a position of, shall I say, a useful servant ? Bub to rebum to tho main question. Are we rabbit-farming if we treat tbe rabbit as merchandise — selling it to the highest bidder, as we really do by our present system of tinning and freezing ? My reply is that unless we deliberately breed rabbits for the purpoie of ee'ling them at a profit we cannot be said to be farming the pest. The farmer docs not pocket any part of the proceeds of the sales of rabbits under our present system ; the whole of the money goes into the coffers of other people, who are not in any way concerned in fclie holding of the land upon which the rabbit moves, lives, and has his being, and besides rears his families. The farmer in this case cannot be said to

GRIND DOWN THE POOR WORKING MAX bslow the living wage, as he allows him bo fell the stock off bis farm and to appropriate the gro*s proceeds into the bargain. A queer style of farming this, is it not ? This is what wo ace charged with, notwithstanding the notorious fact that we have tried for years every method that could be thought of to exterminate tho rabbits, and found the task an impossible one, discovering also that the most we could hope to do was to keep the pest partially in cheek. Wo have now', alas! had a good fow years' experience in attempting to rid the colony of rabbits, and we can only come to the conclusion that- their complets extermination is % matter of sheer impotsibility, so that in discussing the matter in its broadest aspect it is essential to keep this fact io mind. Really the practical question regarding tho rabbit nuisance is how to make tha best of a very bad job— or, in other words, how to make the most money out of bunny, aud at the same time maintain the least possible number of them at; the expense of the grass and other herbage which should go '^towards fattening out flocks and herds. IMtorly the rabbit exporter has come to play an important part in the affairs of this district. Practically this useful member of our community offers to ra'ieve the farmers of the grievous burden they have bo long aud patiently borne, and says in effect: "You stand aside for » while and I'll take up the running. Yot don't waafe fehft ra'ibits ; I do, and can afford to pay your r.tbSi'-ers much more liberally for their work than you can." It stands to reason thab the higher the price ssb upon buuny's head the keener will become the pursuit of him ; consequently rsbbiters will work better, and will catch more rabbits for the man who pays big price 1 ? thsm for the man who ould only afford to offer a much lower rate. • Now, I take ib tbat Ihe farmer knows a good bargain when he sees it. and will m»ke. up his mind to give the new system a thorough trial during the winter months. After ihe trappers have caught all J,he " catehftblo " rabbits the landowners will, in the dry spring weather, pub the finishing touch on Ui? job by caretul and systematic pollard poisoning. If this can be called rabbitfarming, then I say to all concerned GO AHEAD AND PROSPER !

If we rnallv are rabbit-farming, wliare are the proof* ? Our export of wool aud frozen mutton shows not only that we are not following up this nefarious practica, but that we are sheep-f arming, and that successfully, notwithstanding tbe fact that the price of our mutton in London is fO low. Wh-.t a pity it is from the point of view of our friends who are horrified at tho bare idea of our freezing and exporting rabbits that the article, competes on fqual terms in the London market with the British and Continental rabbits, although our mutton cannot hold its own against Home grown. The reason is simple enough. W« freeze rabbits with their skins on. Itjakes twice as long to freeze a rabbit as * sheep, on account of the covering of fur. The fur is a nou-conductor of heat, and the carcase when thawed out thaws very slowly and from the inside, thus leaving the moisture which invariably attends the process of thawing inside, instead of, us in the case of muttoa or lambs, outside the carcise, thus spoiling the "bloom. The colonial rabbit being skinned cold, just as his English brother is, is in precisely the same condition as the Home-produced bunny, and both are placed en the market on equal terms. From this it will be seen tbat the trade has a very uoo'l p-ospecb of success before it. Alter all, the rabbifc export bu»iness ia at bosb making a virtue of necessity. I do not fhink that the prices obttinable in London will ever be Rumciently high to tempt New Zealand landholders to farm rabbits ; so thafe cue good friends who are so sadly exercised over the question may possess their souls in peace and be assures that the more colonial rabbits our Bntisn cousins consume tho smaller will ba the fx<«n b of the pesh here. Our friend "Drover,' who implored the freezing companies not to let the accursed thing (that it, the rabbit) within their insulated walls, must have been pained uo see that the*e companies, hungering for dividends, have not a soul above the acquirement of filthy lucre What miserable sinners they are— especially Mataura ! Uuforfcunately, nowadays everything must be looked o afe from an £s. d. point of view. A constituency might be so demoralised by a lavish expenditure of pubh c mere/ that it would r 'turn to Parliament tne most 'reckless plunger r-xtant. A licensing district may be demoralised by the proceeds oE license fees (see debate of last Temperance Convention), aud I am very much nfraid that the loose cash pub into circulation by the sala of bunny will demoralise the general public into

WINKING AT HABBIT-FAEMING, if such tbe export industry can be termed. Rabbits, like weeds, are useless to farmers, bub if ib turned out by-and-bye that tbe weeds growing amongst our crops became so valuabla for certain purposes that men could be found willing to pull them out and carry them away, would we co in for farming weeds on that account ? Of course not ; yet I suppose, as in the present instance, there would be found men foolish enough to declare from one end of the colony to the other that the unholy business of weed-farming was going on. What a focmid-able-lookiug thing the r&bbit pest at one time appeared to be. For years ib appeared as though sheep would be starved out to give place to the furry millious of devastating rodents, despite our most strenuous efforts. In the early stages of the fight what numbers of mortgages were contracted, and how they grew ! They say that the darkest hour precedes the dawn. Southland has passed through many dark hours, and, so far as the rabbit nuisance ia concerned, the dawn appears to be breaking at last. To show you how fearfully bigoted some people are in regard to this question, I may say that an Australian squatter (with the distinguishing prefix " Hon." attached to his name), waxinc eloquent on the rabbit problem, said he would willingly give sis months' imprisonment to the man who would dare to freeze a rabbit. Whafc magnificent sentiments! Gentlemen, they would do infinite credit to the mosfi despotic "Little Father" who exercised supreme sway over down-trodden Russia. I pity New Zealand— or any other country— it she were s°vei'ned by men of tho stamp of tnaU

Australian squatter. Every heart, we are told, knows its own sorrows, and no one knows better than the farmers themselves what troubles and trials have been experienced in New Zealand in the effort to improve the rabbits off the face of the country. Commissions have sat on the pest, legislation of & character whioh would have produced open rebellion in Icbs peacable countries has been passed ; inspectors have been appointed who bounced and bullied the unfortunate laud occupier, who, being told that it was all for his good, meekly bore the ceaseless harrying asd persecution, and now that the farmer wants to play a lone hand and settle the matter in an effective way, his so-called friends rise up and exclaim in concert "KO, YOU SHALL NOT BE FBEF. ! " I am not exaggerating in this mailer, and I leave it to you as practical men, having experienced all the worries and trials of the psrpetual rabbit war, to say that this is a concise statement of facts as we know them. Lafc us briefly look into the question and see what cau be gained by taking the advice of OPPONENTS OF THE EXPORT SYSTEM. Sheir cry seems to be, " Don't make any use whatever of the rabbit ; kill, slay, and utterly destroy its memben, root and branch." This, it is urged, is the correct way of solving the difficulty. This theory — for it is nothing else — is open to many grave objections. In the first place, IT IS IMPOSSIBLE, and in the second — but wait a moment, and I will tell you a little anecdote about a man who tried to borrow £5 from another. His friend could not Joan the money. "In the first place," he said, " I haven ; t got it, and in the second " " Oh, that'll do," said the j would-be borrower, " don't apologise ; you've said enough." This ia precisely the way in which we are situated in regard to the rabbits. It is all very well to say, " Kill off the pest"; but we can't. And to keep it down, which is all we can hope to do, we must adopt special means, and it is against these means that such a hne and cry has been raised. I | would like to remind opponents of rabbit ex- j porting that experience has exploded many ' plausible-looking theories in the past, among them the once-accepted notion of rabbit extermination. We experimented with every method brought forward, and sbill bunny main- \ tamed ths upper hand. We have invoked the ! assistance of tbe scientist, the chemist, the mechanic, and the irresponsible theorist in I carrying the war into the enemy's camp. All ' have failed, »nd at last, I believe, we have * struck bed-rock, and are solving the difficulty J by forcing the rabbit to pay the reward offered for his own capture. " THE PEOPLE WHO BENEFIT. By sending aw&y frozen rabbits we not only do a great good to the colony, but we benefit ' directly, and in a substantial manner, the ex- ' porter, the merchant, the banker, and the railways. Not only this, but the taxpayer is relieved of a part of the burden impoied upon him for the maintenance of the unemployed. , A COTJNTRY OF BIG THISGS. | The rabbit question has been very much in evidence lately. What between prosecutions, letters to the press, and the detention of trains by the long procession of rabbits factorywards, the export business and Southland generally are • being well advertised. " The gre*t industry of Southland" it is being called. Well we do go , in for big things down this way, and do nothing by halves. If we found a mercantile house, it is the " great" something or other ; if we make a j smash, it is a "great" eternal smash ; and if we I effect a sale of oats, it is a sale, and one to be | talked about. We must live up to our reputa- j tion, so let us have no half measures where the ; rabbit nuisance is concerned. I hope, however, j that the cabled quotations in London and the . prices to be got at the factory will continue sa now to be of secondary importance to the great i central consir?*r>tif>n of keeping the rabbits

1* CONCLUSION,

wi,uid say that exporting is a proved sucfeßß

vi a remedial measure. Last year saw the first practical application of the system in this district, and the result was that tbe pest was reduced to a minimum never known before. The chief plank in our opponents' contention that we are rabbit-farming is the fact of the enormous quantities of rabbits that are being received at the different works for freezing and other treatment. That is easily explained. This year we are serving * much larger area of country than was dealt with last year, and instead of iti being a proof of the increase o f the pest, I guarantee that the new country from which this season's supply is being drawn will by the spring be as free of rabbits as the smaller district so treated last year was. I notice that several exporters have atranged to send Home rabbits up to October, but I venture to say that they will find it practically impossible to fulfil their engagements six weeks or two months before that date The rabbits will not ba there to be caught. I regret that I have not bad more time to devote to this paper, bnt I feel confident that the few rambling observations I have set down will serve in some slight degree to strengthen in the minds of those who are open to reason the honest conviction that we are not rabbit-farming, bat are, by the means we have adopted, doing more to minimise the evils of tbe grievous rabbit pe3t thin has been accomplished by any o*her method tried up to the present moment. I can assure you that the preparation of this paper — feeble though the effort may be — ha? been a labour of love to me, and if it should be the means of converting even one of the oponents of the export business to our vr&y of thinking, I shall deem myself handsomely rewarded.