TOPICS OF THE TIMES.

Southland Times, Issue 19396, 10 November 1924, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE TIMES.

New South Wales has a rabbit menace to meet, and the Graziers’ Association of that State is making a determined effort to secure the support of every landholder for co-operative action. Discussing this matter Gossip, a South Australian weekly paper says:—“ln the closer settled areas the problem is not so difficult to solve, as, by concerted action on the part of everyone, it is claimed that the rabbit can be wiped out at the cost of about two shillings per acre. Team work is absolutely necessary, however, as it is useless for one person to keep his place clear of bunnies if the next landowner will not do his share. Laws are made and inspectors are appointed, but unless the inspectors are backed up by the Pastures Protection Board, they cannot enforce the laws. It has been found that the members of these Boards are often the worst offenders, and, as they refuse to prosecute anyone else in order to protect themselves, it is often very difficult to bring offenders to justice. The second problem is that of the useless lands and Crown lands on which rabbits breed so freely. Here the rabbit must either be made an asset by developing properly a national industry in skins and flesh, or it must be kept off the good land by wire-netting. The principal methods of control recommended by the Graziers’ Committee are as follows: I. the destruction of all harbour. 2.—Continuous and thorough dogging of the country. 3. —The use of spring and netting traps, as well as the use of the fumigator. 4. Wire netting.”

Good roads and the 15,000,000 automobiles that use them have created a great deal of new hotel business in the United States, so much, indeed, that the industry is experiencing the greatest boom in its history, says a writer in the Highway Magazine. All records for construction of new hotels were broken in 1923. During the year more than 280 transient hotels of 40-rooms capacity or larger were built, the size running up to 1200 rooms. Hotels of smaller capacity than 40 rooms numbered several hundreds. Formerly the best and biggest hotels were in the large cities, which were almost always railroad centres. Now the cities on the main trunk lines of motor travel are doing most of the hotel construction. Although the tendency is to build larger and larger hotels, even in the smaller cities, it is the hotel construction in the little towns and villages that indicates more strikingly the influence of good roads and touring cars. The wayside inn has come back. The modern inn, of course, is different from its ancestor of stagecoach days. It has “all modern conveniences,” and is at least semi-fireproof. Garages operated in connection with hotels are no longer a rarity. The new 1100-room Hotel Statler in Buffalo operates in connection with the hotel one of the largest, if not the largest, garage in that city, because so many patrons come in touring cars. A great many hotels have them, and it is safe to say that half of the new hotels of 1924 will have them.