THE RABBIT QUESTION

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1542, 30 August 1924, Page 7

THE RABBIT QUESTION

MENACE TO PASTORAL INDUSTRY. POSITION IN THE SOUTH. The Director-General of Agriculture, in his annual report, states that rabbit control must receiv.e further attention from the point of view of endeavouring to bring about better coordination of work between the inspector and the occupiers of land in certain districts where trapping for the purpose of securing rabbit skins is becoming an established industry and quite a lucrative .one for those engaged in it. In some North Island areas very excellent, work has been done in rabbit destruction, rabbit boards having proved successful in their operations, thus demonstrating that with the farmers themselves actively determined .to cope effectively with the pest good results can be obtained. The question of the rabbit skin export industry in the south, however, is one needing ito be thoroughly gone into from all points ,of view in order that a settled policy can be adopted .which will hold out a prospect of meeting the present unsatisfactory position from a rabbit control point of view to the best advantage. Under present conditions the inspection staff is placed in an extremely unsatisfactory .position in these particular districts, and while its officers are doing their best to carry out their duties efficiently, the conditions, resulting from the rabbit skin export trade undoubtedly exert an influence which renders the work of the inspectors difficult to carry out on the lines one would like to see it carried out —namely, proper co-ope-ration between the farmers and the Departmental officers. On this subject the Director of the Live Stock Division says: "There is a very genuine and praiseworthy desire ■on the part of a considerable number of land occupiers to have rabbits reduced to a minimum, but unfortunately on the part of others there seems to be an utter lack of any serious attempt at improvement. This is greatly retarding the work .of the others and the efforts of the Department. The high price of rabbit skins is still a marked factor in blocking the way to the improved conditions necessary, and undoubtedly the effect of the trapping industry, combined with dilatory owners and unfinancial and bad farmers, is very largely responsible for retarding the increased production of 'live stock and live stock products to the extent of millions of pounds in value. The total value of the export trade in rabbits and their skins is scarcely £500,000, in spite of the high price of skins, but if the food which went to feed the 14,000,000 rabbits which supplied the skins to the value (without calculating the additional numbers killed and not collected and those left to "carry on") had been feeding sheep, it does not require a financier to estimate the yearly loss which the Dominion is suffering through the rabbit pest The question is of great national and economic importance, and something needs to be done, as although there is undoubtedly an improvement on the position as existing a few years ago, there do not appear to be sufficient indications -of that future improvement so necessary if we are ever to reap permanent benefit in the direction of a greatly reduced rabbit pest, it is something to be able to hold our own against the extraordinary breeding propensities of the rabbit, but more progress than that is desired, and it is indisputable that the work of eradication has been made much more difficult owing to the high commercial value attaching to the skins. The rabbit boards formed in the North Island are entitled to a considerable amount ,of praise for the manner in which they have dealt with the matter of suppression of the rabbits within 'the areas controlled by them, and it is largely to their credit that the pest in the North Island has been so considerably reduced. The absence of the commercial element in the north has also been of assistance in the work of the inspectors. I very much regret that the reports of the work of .the majority of the boards formed in the Otago and Southland districts are not so satisfactory, and I regret to say that these boards are not giving the results anticipated. Something more is wanted than merely standing between the Department in its work and the settlers. It has been clearly shown in the case of quite a number of the boards in the north that good work is possible of fulfilment, and I am compelled to adduce from the reports received that there is not the necessary spirit shown by the members of many of 'the boards in the districts mentioned. A very considerable increase in poison materials despatched from the Department's poison depots has taken place principally in the North Island, the large amounts purchased by rabbit boards being to some extent responsible for the increase. The quantity of phosph/jrised pollard sent out alone amounted to 457,000'1b. Cover 217 tons) besides considerable quantities of phosphorised oats, strychnine, carbon bisulphide, etc.