RABBIT HELPS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 June 1942, Page 4

RABBIT HELPS

HATS FOR THE TROOPS. PART IN WAR EFFORT. Every slouch hat worn by an Australian soldier is made from the fur of about nine rabbitskins. Experiments have proved that for durability there is nothing to equal this fur. Thus, the rabbit is playing its part in Australia’s war effort. Rabbitskins, and the fur from them, because of their light weight, will also make warm linings for greatcoats and be used for caps, mittens, etc., for Australian and Allied troops who may be fighting in cold climates. Millions of rabbitskins are being used for military purposes and millions more rabbits are consumed as food. In normal times the value of rabbitskins exported from Australia is about £2,000,000 a year. Rabbitskins, treated by modern dye chemists, are also used extensively in the fur trade. Under the names of lapin and coney the skin fur has been proved to stand hard wear. It seems that the Australian climate has toughened the fibre. Truly “bunny” is not such a pest after all. Without any desire to reopen the controversy on the subject of his importation to Australia, it is a historical fact that the first of his tribe, probably silver greys, arrived in'the First Fleet. A census of livestock in the colony on May 1, 1788, a little more than three months after the establishment of the first settlement at Sydney Cove, disclosed five rabbits in New South Wales! Three of these belonged to Governor Philip and the other two “to the officers and men of the detachment.” In 1791 more rabbits were brought to Sydney from South Africa, and there were many other importations before they achieved notoriety as a pest.