The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1879.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 267, 17 September 1879, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1879.

We are glad to see that several rabbit districts have already been constituted in the Wairarapa, but the attempt to exterminate the pest in the outskirts of the county will not avail much if Lhe enemy be allowed to remain unmolested in its strongholds. In the centre of the county the vermin now possesses a harbor of refuge where its prolific multiplication can proceed undeterred by phosphorus and oil of rhodium. It is in vain that the Wainuioi'u Trustees pour rhodium oil like water and di'tribute phosphorus at half cost ii on the banks of the Waingawa the enemy increases and multiplies and calls the Taratahi Plain its own. In no part of the Wairavapa are the rabbits more numerous than in this locality,, We have ourselves walked over thousands of acres of beautiful park-like land near the river we have named which have been made absolutely worthless by the pest. Eich level land without a stone or stump to break its surface, but covered every inch of it with ordure, and each blade of grass upon it eat down or poisoned by the countless vermin hosts. It is in such spots as these that the Rabbit Act requires to be brought into force, and we do trust that settlers at Gladstone will not be allowed to suffer the risk of having their land overrun by a migration from the Taratahi after they have perhaps at some trouble and more expense suppressed the nuisance within their own boundaries. If it pays to wage a war at Wainuioru and at Otaraia, it will surely answer to try and do battle on the Taratahi. It is only right that while settlers in outlying districts are proceeding with the work of extermination, the farmers in the more central parts of the county should work with them. By united action in all parts of the valley, rhodium and phosphorus may wipe out the scourge. The Act, though not perfect, is fairly workable, and one or two energetic farmers on the Taratahi or the Opaki could easily bring it into operation. We do hope and trust that we shall soon hear of more rabbit districts, and that intelligence and enterprise in dealing with the rabbit nuisance will not be confined to the outlying districts.