RABBIT PEST IN AUSTRALIA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 215, 10 September 1937, Page 12

RABBIT PEST IN AUSTRALIA

PASTORALISTS CONCERNED | The rabbit pest continues to worry i farmers in some parts of New South I Wales. At a recent meeting of the ■ Farmers’ and Settlers’ Association at j Sydney, one delegate said that although many areas in the State were now free of rabbits, they were breeding up in the west. “Wire netting will not stop them when they start to travel,” he declared. He said that lie regarded rabbits as the worst pest settlers had to contend with. They had been the means of breaking many settlers on large and small holdings. The conference was discussing a motion that inquiries should be made regarding the virus myxo-matosis cuniculi, recently discovered by Sir Charles Martin, at Cambridge, which had proved deadly to rabbits, and that if the virus was found to be satisfactory it should be distributed among farmers and graziers. The resolution was carried. A speaker declared that the only way to exterminate rabbits was by hard work with the pick and shovel. The Only Hone Mr. E. M. Hamblin, of the council, said that the only things that could keep rabbits back from the west were netting fences. Tick and shovel work was too costly in the far west. A young settler there who tried to

do that might as well dig his grave financially. Other speakers stated that every I precaution should be taken with rabbit virus. A motion was carried that the Government be requested to take every precaution in experiments to I ensure that other animals would be [safe from infection. The president j (Mr. H. S. Henley) said that the re- , solution made no reflection upon the . work of the Council for Scientific and . Industrial Research. Rest Jutions were carried that the Government be asked to appoint more distinct veterinary officers in lhe country; and that all stallions in ' New South Wales undergo compulr sory veterinary examination for I soundness before being allowed to stand. L It was resolved that the Govern- > ment be urged to enact legislation to ; make lot splitting or tossing at wool • sales illegal and to expedite the passi ing of an act to control commission I charges on the sale of stock through > saleyards. 1