THE RABBIT PEST

Southland Times, Issue 19519, 19 May 1922, Page 6

THE RABBIT PEST

EFFICACY OF NATURAL ENEMIES CONTROVERSY IN SYDNEY (By Telegraph.—Press Asan.—Copyright) (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association) SYDNEY, May 18. Press contention is raging round the advice given by Mr Coleman Phillipa, a New Zealander, to a pastoralists’ meeting that stoats and weasels should be introduced to combat the rabbit plague. The meeting resolved to ask the Federal Government to permit their introduction. Mr Symons, Chief Inspector of Stock, declares that a similar proposal has been considered from time to time by both the Federal and State Governments. He says Mr Phillips’s proposals are largely regarded as theories. Some years ago official enquiries were made in New Zealand and the information obtained was utterly opposed to the proposal, for the reason that introduced stoats and weasels had quite forsaken the pursuit of rabbits and become serious destructive pests to poultry and all kinds of bird life. Later official reports from New Zealand all indicated that the only effective methods of dealing with rabbits were netting, poisoning, and trapping. Mr Froggart, vice-president of the Zoological Society, also issues a strong warning against the danger of introducing Mr Phillips’s methods.