THE RABBIT NUISANCE.

Waipawa Mail, Volume 2, Issue 114, 15 October 1879, Page 2

THE RABBIT NUISANCE.

Referring to the rabbit pest, tho* Secretary for Crown Lands observes r —This has so overrun tho pastoral! country as in some districts to have seriously curtailed the carrying capacity of the runs, and proportionately diminished tho rents in those cases where it is assessed an the number of sheep. The evil is greatest in Otago and Southland, and some idea of its magnitude is afforded by the * Custom house returns of the number of rabbit skins exported during the year ending Both June, 1879, rvhicli areas follows r From Bluff, 4,611,579 skins; from Dunedin, 528.132 skins ; from Lyttelton, 62,854 skins ; total export from New Zealand, 5,202,865 skins. It is manifest that* this evil can only be abated by general concerted action over the infested areas. Tho Rabbit Nuisance Acts ,1876 and 1877, provide for the constitution of districts, truftees, levy of rates, compulsory destruction of rabbits, and the bonus of one half-penny for every skin exported that is the produce of a d t i*t const tut- d under the Act. Shooting, trapping, and hunting have been the means hitherto mostly employed in coping with the evil, but the great success of 4 poisoning by means of corn steeped in phosphorus and flavored with oil of rhodium’ in Kaikoura district, Marlborough, and referred to m Mr Goulter’s report, is being tried also in other infested districts with much success. Suffocation has also been successful in the colony of South Australia, and in Southland. This is done by placing bisulphide of carbon in the burrow's, and closing up the entrance with a so*?. There is not the slightest doubt but that the evil will be reduced to manage - able limits, and, as the county- got more occupied, ,it will get virtually eradicated altogether, except in big 1 and more inaccessible back count. In a note, the following recipe is giv. which'uppeared in the Otago W it ness August last: —9 gallons water, 100 wheat crushed, Rh vJiruanhevniM l sugar, 1 n id o: \V n vate

n ri oi* saucepan or Doiiing well, and, as soon as the .are boils, draw fire, cover up closely writh wet sacks for thirty hours ; it is then fit for use. Remarks : “About a table-spoonful is sufficient for each bait laid. Rabbits eat this wheat greedily, but sheep do not touch it—* hence there is no danger to stock.’*