The Rabbit Industry.

Otago Witness, Issue 2300, 31 March 1898, Page 30

The Rabbit Industry.

TO THE EDITOIt.

Sir, — As there satins fco b- a desire on the part cf the Government to nip the rabbit-trapping industry in the bud, I think it is time that someone took up Ih*; cudgels in its behalf, and with your kind permission I propose to lay a fsw facts before your i-paders. Ifc ia contendad by the Hon. John M'Kfi.zie and his department Ibat rabbil-trappitig leads to rabbit-farming, bub they have never yafc givtn any prool that their contention is anything more than a mere auppQfiticn. What are the facts ? We-oanonly judge by what we kao«?, and I am going to tell you what I know. Many years ago I had occasion to go through Shag Valley, Duoback, and ai^craes ' nee every week, and I can say without fear of contradiction that it was about as " rabbity " a district ai eae could find in the Southern Hemisphere. The Kon John M'Kulz c knows that, because he had a farm abtus as bad es auyihing I «iver saw. A rabbit factory wrb erected at Dns.biek, and what was the result? Employment was provided for tiie young people of tbe districn, good wsgss were earned, atid rabbit 1 were brc.ugb.ti down to a fair thing, and the district generally gained in every way. Had there been no factory rabbits would still abound there, there would be no employment for the young people, and Duuback would b3 wiped out. Othe? districts that I cau speak about are Hyde and Kyeburn. For years these districts were practically over-run, but last year and the year before people began to send their rabbits to Dunedin, and lc.Jt year Messrs Sullivan and Co opened a depot at Hyde and bought all the rabbits they could get. I fern told on the very best authority thab frotn £200 to £300 per month was paid fco rabbifcew from the month of April to September, and the benefis to the district will not be dented by uny save person. At present there are four depots in the district — two at Hyde and two at Kokonga — aadsdperpair is being paid for rabbits. One of those depotß has 29 msn employed already, and at present something like £60 a week is being paid in Hyde alone, aud I suppose nearly aa much afc Kokonga. How any one can condemn h ratthod of rabbit destruction which causes so much employment and converts a waste product into a marketable commodity passes my comprehension. A rabbit is at present, I believe, worth aboub 9d in London, and a very large proportion of that 9d comes t3 New Zealand — there is the trapping, the packing, tbe railage, tbe freezing charges, and ths commission on gales, &c, all for an article that with summer poisoning is simply wasted, and with winter poisoning is only valued for its skin. ■ Many years' experience as a farmer at Hyde enables me to say that 'rabbit-poisonicg alone will not keep rabbits under. Farmers will not, and cannot; be made to, poison in a systematic manner. Bach one has his own idea as to which is the best month to poison, and the consequence is that a landholder who poisons in June may be over-run with rabbits from some one who does not poison till August. Or again, the rabbits may not take ifc iv Juue, and the consequence is a failure for the year. With trapping there are no failures. So long as the rabbits are worth money men will trap, and it needs no inspector to compel them. So far as the rabbit-farming cry is concerned ib is pure bunkum. The only thing that tends (o rabbit-farming i 3 the prevention of rabbittinning and export. When the rabbit was of no value except for its winter skin, there were people who carefully did as little ac possible till winter, and reckoned on a. fur cheque as large as their wool one. Rabbit inspectors were powerless, because if they interfered political pressure was brought to bear and the inspectors sent to " fresh fields and pastures new." How it can be contended that; making the rabbit worth catching during the season ifc was farmed

tenda to rabbit-farming is more than I can undei stand. For my part I think the position is very ; clear. The rabbits cannot be exterminated, and I are no nearer extermination than they ! were when Mr Ritchie undertook to [ " wips them out.' 1 To hamper an occupa1 tion tba'.i turns this scourge into a source of emplostnenf; for hundreds of people 15 surely a suicidal policy. And it behoves all those interested to combine as one man to resist any attempts made to kill this important; industry. Hundreds of our young men are being enabled to make a start in homes of their own with the money earned at this work, and are ferns taken out- of the labour markeb and made employers of labour ; and it is their" duty to see that an indsstry which is doing so much for them is not strangled in its infancy. — I am, &c, Cromwell, Marca 26. J. J. Ramsay.