Rabbits in Australia.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XVIII, Issue 1711, 24 July 1885, Page 3

Rabbits in Australia.

The rabbit invasion has come to be looked upon in the Australian colonies with the same sort of horror with which ancient China regarded an invasion of the Tartars, and the same expedient is proposed to prevent it, namely, the building of a wall. Ministers from Melbourne and Adelaide have been con furring together upon the possibility of erecting a rabbit proof fence along the border of the two colonies, that each colony should be ravaged by its own rabbits only, and not exposed to incursions from foreign hordes. I'he proposal was made in the interests of South Australia, where rabbits are comparatively few. Melbourne, however, demurred on the ground of cost, as indeed it well might, for (lie fence was estimated to cost £BO a mile It has been resolved, therefore, to cope with the rabbits by legislation. Henceforward a condition in grazing licenses will bo that.the licensee shall exterminate rabbits. The same duty is imposed also upon local boards and upon all occupiers of laud. Legislation, however, adds nothing to the sum of existing forces, and if the motives and means hitherto available have not been adequate to keeping the rabbits down it may be doubted whether any stimulus that the law can give will prove more effectual. Meanwhile one industry at least is thriving on the present state of affairs. There is a potted rabbit manufactory near Adelaide which annually consigns thou* sands 0! these pretty creatures to the air tight tin, wuich is characteristic of modern civilisation.