FROZEN RABBIT.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13606, 28 May 1908, Page 2

FROZEN RABBIT.

THE AUCKLAND PROPOSALS.

AR(*l T MEXT FOR AND AGAINST.

The proposals of the Auckland Farmers' Freezing Company to establish a rabbitfreezing department at its works has aroused a curious diversity of opinion amongst farmers and land-holders gener- ,^ n °ther hand, the rabbit pest is noticably increasing, and it is held that a useful and profitable industry might be established in the export of frozen rabbits to England. whiie, on the oilier, many people hold the opinion that trapping will lead to rabbit farming, and a consequent further increase in the number of rabbits. The opponents of the freezing proposal have made out an interesting case, bu'l on the oilier side there is a great deal of solid argument as well. In the first place, those in favour of freezing ask, if the

poisoning system is the success that is claimed for it, why are the rabbits increasing so rapidly Again, how is it possible to exterminate rabbits by nivanof poison in a country like Auckland, where there is abundance of green food all

the year round, and rabbits will only take poison when unable to procure green food? J-"ome v-ry erroneous ideas relative to the rabbit industry in Otago and southland have been put forward, and it has been stated that wtiole towns in Southland were living on tho rabbit industry, a statement which is clearlv absurd to anyone who knows that- end of the Dominion. The great consignments of rabbits f»r the freezers come from the sparselvttled country of the interior, where the big runs are and only odd and small lots come from the fanning country round the coasts. It is aleo freely stated that tlm rabbits have ruined large areas in Southland. and that, again, is apt to be very misleading. The only country which has deteriorated aft the result- of the march of the rabbit, in Southland is the high, pastoral area in the far back blocks, where station of from 50,000 to 200.000 acres exist, and where the population would be !rr, m five to ten men per station. Central Otago is largely held in enormous pastoral runs, where merino sheep roam over hundreds of thousands of acres on any one of the run-s—and that is where the labbits

are. A gentleman in Otago. who is recognised there as probably the greatest authority in the South on the rabbit question, writes: " I notice members of the Auckland Agricultural and Pastoral Association are taking exception to the freezing idea. It is an undoubted fact, as I can prove to you at a moment's notice, that in Otago and Southland the trapping of rabbits had done more to decrease them than all the other methods available put together, but it is desirable that trapping '■should lie followed up by poisoning immediately the trappers cease operations." Moreover, it invtit. be remembered, the rabbit country of Otago and Southland, is far moro favourable to poisoning than Auckland country, because in winter in l he Sontli the rabbits are very often hard pressed to find natural fodder."'

A fortnight ago, a Herald representative revisted sc-veral runs in Otago and talked with station managers about the rabbit, pest. One and all agreed that, opposed as they had been to rrapping at first, they were, now convinced that it was proving the salvation of the runs. They laughed at the ieda of extensive rabbit farming going oil. and replied that it might he in isolated instances, that rabbit farming was carrkd on, but the Government iuspectois were too sharp to permit that- busiiKiss to be carried on in a wholesale manner. Xo doubt, itrapj>erts were not going to kill young undersized rabbits or destroy a ne6t when tfi-ey saw if, but- they were taking suck enormous numbers ot the full-grown rabbits 'that there -was a very great diminution in the pest noticeable. When a section of the railway was opened up, the adjacent country was speedily cleared of rabbits, and as means of transport were pushed further, inland, trappers got to woric and the rabbit were pushed further and further back. Of course, the run-holder had to see that there was Rome system. Such stations as Teviot run, near Kwxburgh, and Mount Pisa, above Cromwell, were 1 instanced as places were system, had resulted in almost- entirely freeing the country of rabbits. Curiously enough, some districts in the interior are Incoming infested with hares, and anyone who wants hare shooting in abundance can find it. all the year round about Maniototo, there being 110 close season there.