TRAGEDY OF LORD HOWE ISLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 3524, 27 September 1921, Page 41

TRAGEDY OF LORD HOWE ISLAND.

GRIM EIGHT AGAINST RATS. SYDNEY, September 5. Latest advices received from Lord Howe Island —a beautiful spot in tlie Pacific 599 miles north-east from Sydney, where for three years the inhabitants have been almost hopelessly struggling against a frightful plague ol rats —indicate that a thick covert has been recently cleared away, and over 12,000 rats killed. It is now hoped that it will be possible to get the pest under control. Lord Howe Island, which is a dependency of New South Wales, has been a European settlement nearly as long as Australia itself, and it has become famous for general reasons. It was the place wlmre William Charles Wentworth, the famous patriot and stc.teemnn. who framed the first Australian Constitution, spent his boyhood; it is a very agreeable place to visit, and it produces a particular kind of table palm which has been much sought after oil over the world. But three years ago a steamer was wrecked off the island, and from il there escaped a swarm of rats. These multiplied with incredible rapidity, and they have threatened to make life there impossible for every living creature save themselve?. They have checked the breeding’ of birds by devouring their eggs; they have chewed and ruined much, valuable palm seed; they have seriously affected cultivation (particularly of fruit) on the island; and between whiles they have eaten largely of shell snails. The dense nature of the- undergrowth has rendered tire extirpation of the rodents an exceedingly difficult matter, but the problem has been tackled determinedly, with the result that the plucky islanders begin to see the end of their troubles in sight,