The Timaru Herald. SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 1884.

Timaru Herald, Volume XL, Issue 2945, 1 March 1884, Page 2

The Timaru Herald. SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 1884.

There has been an ominous dearth of news from Tonquin of late. A month or six weeks ago, it looked us if war between Frnnce and China was on the eve of breaking out, but Bince then nothing has been heard of the movements of the two nations, either military or diplomatic. The explanation of this iB that the French have been busy despatching reinforcements to their Commander, and that operations have been at a standstill pending their ! arrival. Tim French are understood so have about 13,000 men of all am>B m Tonquin; but even tbis force is held to be quite inadequate | for the lightest part of the task that i lies before them, if they reaLly intend to open hostilities with China. Up to the preHent time, they have done nothing more than gain a precarious footing m ToDquin, and they arc now ungagwl m the tedious and difficult work of reducing a line of fortified places commanding the navigation of tho Ri-d River. They have taken Sontay, not without heavy loss, and they are about to advance oil Bacninh. [f they succeed m taking Bacninh, — aud it is quite probable that they may fail, — they will still be only at the beginning of tho business, for there aru half a dozen other places, as strong as Bicninb, and more distant from the base of supplies, which will have to be taken before the French will be masters of the Red River. The reduction' of each of these places is estimated to cost aeverat hundred soldierH m killed, wounded, or sick, so that by the time they have done with this piift of the campaign, their force will have been reduced very considerably ; whilst at the same time, the necessity for a large force v/ill have been immensely increased, owing to the extent of country lo be held ugaiost a teeming population burning for revenge. And after a loug and bloody campaign on the Red River, they will still bo only on tbo threshold of China. Tho fnct is tbo IVenob liavo undertaken a. job which they little knew the magnitude of, and which is just about as much as they can umntigo, if not more. It is simply a question with them now, of how many men can be 3pared from the army at Home, und bow long the Chamber will continuo to rate money for tho war. Already the /cry name of Tonquin is beginning to be rery unpopular. Tbepublio are disgusted with the whole thing, and tlao Ministry vonld gladly be out of it. Nothing )ut it wretched feeling of false pride ireveuts them from withdrawing altojetber, ns they ought to have done long igo. They do not like to admit that hey bavo committed a blunder, and bey tltwo not face tho storm of din- •

oatent and ridicule that would be sure 1 o arise m France, upon their announo- 1 ag that the troops of the great 1 tepublic had been compelled to give i my before a horde of pig-tailed pirates. 1 Tet it must come to that sooner or 1 ater.nnless the Government and the Par- : iament are prepared to make a military ; tfort not less than would be required m m European war. The g.ime is decidedly lot worth the ctndle. # We wonder whether any practical steps ire being taken m New 'Zealand to iscertain whether tuberculosis among •abbits is or is not tb.£ potent remedy for the rabbit plague that it is represented to be. The evidence, as far as we ;an gatber it I'rom various Australian papers is decidedly conflicting. Some authorities declare thai m tuberculosis md m it alone, the complete solution of the rabbit problem i 3 to be found. Others are convinced that, though tuberculosis may sweep off the rabbits, or thin them out for a time, under eeitain conditions, m particular localities, it will not affect the plague at large, and cannot be made to do ao by artificial means. Others, again, while they admit that tuberculosis might be made so prevalent as to annihilate the rabbits, yet deprecate any attempt to gain that end by that means, lest sheep and cattle, and even the human race, should be included m the general destruction. The Australasian, we observe, takes up a different ground from any of these. Referring to the propoual to inoculate rabbits with the germs of tuberculosis, and tbus spread death among them wherever they are found, tbat paper says : — " The notion of effecting the destruction of an entire race of animals by inflicting on them a lingering and loathsome difiease, does not commend itself to one's tiense of propriety." Thio surely, is false sentiment with a vengeance. The Australasian Has not (he smallest objection to the practice of poisoning rabbits with phosphorised oats. On the contrary, it s-orongly recommends it. But inoculation of tuberculosis is too shocking to think of. Why, inoculation of tuberculosis is only another form of poisoning, — an external form instead of an internal form — with the difference that, instead of the poison being administered to each individual rabbit, one rabbit is made to communicate the poison to a great many others. We do not know exactly what sort of disease tuberculosifi is, but we take it to be ;in affection of tbf- [ lungs, something like what ia familiarly called consua.ption m the human patient. It. is hereditary, and seems, also, to be highly contagious, or infectious, or both. That is to Bay, the young rabbits are liorn with it, and die of it when only c, few days old, and ! full-grown rabbits take it from, others, ] or catch it from merely feeding on the same pasture with them, or frequenting the same burrows. But it is neither more nor less thin a natural poison, just as phosphorised oatß are a prepared one. As for the question of cruelty, there is no death more agonising than that resulting from a dose of phosphoruH. The effect is simply that of burning the intestines, and if sentiment is to enter into the question, the employment of phosphorus poison ought most certainly to be prohibited. Perhaps, however, it is not the uaere infliction of a greater or less degree of suffering that the Australasian objects to, but the ruthless inhumanity of destroying " an entire race of animals." There is no harm m diminishing their number, jioisoning, nay, three or four millions a year for the next fifty years ; but to destroy an entire race of animals is really too wicked. Did anyone ever hear of such nonsense i' If rabbits are a curse, if they constitute a danger to mankind, an obstruction to human progress, a public evil, what is the use of trifling with them ? If it is lawful and right to keep down their numbers as far as pos8il»le by poison, guns, dogs and traps, it is not lens lawful or right to exterminate them altogether by tuberculosis. After all, we should only be restoring the state of things that we found here. Them were no rabbits m the colonies when we came. We brought theo, m an evil hour, and we are surely entitled, m self defence, to deprive them of the existence which but for us they would never have enjoyed. Even m the case of a native race of animals, no one m his senses would contend tbat man is not fully justified m getting rid of them by all and every means, if they are noxious or destructive of life or property. Would the Australasian consider it a sin, for example, if it were possible, to abolish the whole race of snakes by inoculating a few live specimens with the virus of a disease combining the elements of cancer, smallpox, angina pectoris, tetanus, and delirium tremenß P Would that not " commend itself to one's sense of propriety PC But we need not discuss the sentimental branch of the subject further. The real question which we wish to see settled is much more important. Is tuberculosis capable of producing the effects that art) claimed for it P Can we, if we choose, relieve the colonies of the terrible plague of rabbits by this simple means, or is it a mockery and a delusion, as so many nostrums for dealing with rabbits havo proved ? The most important observations that have yet been made regarding tuberculosis, as far as we are aware, are those recorded by Mr William T. H. Brown, at Ellinthorp m Tasmania. Unfortunately llr Brown is not at all a clear writer, and it is very difficult to get at the actual facts from his published letters, or to make out even what he himself really thinks about tuberculosis. From a long letter of hifi m the Austi'alasian of the 2nd February, however, we learn that over a gre;it part of the Ellinthorp Estate the rabbits have almoßt entirely died out from tuberculosis, and that he anticipates a total clearance within a very short time. He says he was thinking of trying inoculation, bui, a study of the disease led him to the conclusion that it wns not necessary, because the disease Bpreads naturally over a very wide area. He seen: b, indeed, to be decidedly Dpposec'l to inoculation now, but contends that care ought to be taken to prevent the disease from dying out. How that is to be douo, or how the liseaso is to be carried to distant [ilnces — ns, for instance, from one colony to unotlier, or from one district So another, where rivers or mountains intervene — be entirely fails to er-

plain. He seems, m fact, to know very re little about the matter himself ; but l * bis observations, tbougb very imperfect, e j appear to be accurate and distinct as far as they go. He is quite positive n that the disease which kills the rabbits t, m thousands, does not affect sheep at it all. He nays that out of 1800 sheep tl killed on the etation, which were all " depastured m a paddock where the '' rabbits all died of tuberculosis, not a h single one was found to be diseased. ° The health of the flocks on the estate, moreover, is all that could be desired. A t suggestion having been made that tuber- n culoßis only affected the rabbits m wet, » low-lying, malarious spots, Mr Brown d says that is not the case at all, for at ' Ellinthorp the disease is spreading all a over the country, " black marsh, sandy, stony hills, and salt country alike," and ! that wherever it appears the rabbits t speedily disappear, and the feed soon \ afterwards reappears. 1 Now this is very valuable testimony, and it ought to be actively investigated , by the authorities m New Zealand, i But, as -usual, the plaintive cry of the < public is, " Where are the Government, i and where, oh, where, are the Scientific ' Department ?"