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1378. Does anything take place in summer ?—No; the rabbits will increase, of course, during the summer, and then require to be poisoned again next winter. 1379. Have they turned out any ferrets ?—I do not think so. 1380. Then you are speaking of Crown lands?— Yes. 1381. Are there any commonages or reserves? —-I think they are called "hundreds "in that particular place. 1382. Is there any difficulty about them?—No; there are cleared gullies all through the country, and rabbiters can go up through those gullies. 1383. Who kills the rabbits ?—The hundreds are under the control of the Government Inspectors. They are unoccupied entirely; there is no stock running on them. 1384. Have they retaken possession of them?— The Government always had possession. 1384 a. Neighbouring settlers, I suppose, could turn out stock?—lt is too dangerous for that: stock would go into the bush. We fenced it out and kept all our stock inside. 1385. Have the Crown lands just referred to been offered for lease or sale ?—They would not lease. I see that Mr. J. C. Brown has been moving to get them opened on some deferred-payment system of settlement. 1386. Do you mean that they would not lease at the price asked ? —They would not lease at any price. 1387. Have you tried any wire-netting ?—Not on a large scale—only on plantations, and so forth. 1388. Do you think it would be beneficial in keeping rabbits out ? —Not with us, because the whole country is infested ; and Ido not think it would be of any service. Of course, if there is a clean district and an infected one, wire-netting, if properly cared for, would be the means of stopping the encroachment of rabbits; but where the whole country is infested it would be of no service. 1389. But would it not be a good basis in killing rabbits off ?—lt would be rather expensive, I think. 1390. Setting that aside, wire-netting would be an advantage ? —Yes. 1391. In your district would lines of fences assist in protecting a large tract of country?—l do not think so, because the country is broken with streams, and creeks, and gullies, and it would be difficult to keep a fence in such order as to prevent the rabbits getting through it. The floods would break holes in the netting, and the rabbits would get through unless very great care and trouble were taken. They would also cross at the rivers. I have seen them swim through a pretty strong current. Of course, when they are hunted they will take to the water, and will swim a considerable distance. 1392. Do you think the rabbits can be actually exterminated ? —I am very doubtful. Ido not think so. Unless some new system is discovered for killing them out, lam afraid we shall not be able to kill the last rabbit. 1393. Do you think we could keep them down satisfactorily?— Yes—at a very considerable expense. It is going to cost us more money every year than we anticipated. Of course, the price of skins having gone down so much makes it all the harder. Two or three years ago we were getting pretty nearly as much for the skins as covered the expense of killing. 1394. On the level lands I suppose you can fairly kill them?— Yes; the broken country is the worst, where there are under-runners and suchlike. 1395. And you know of no method by which you can poison rabbits in summer?— No. 1396. Summer killing can only be done by trapping, ferreting, and fumigating?—We have done a little fumigation, but that can only be done in certain parts of the country. Where there are rocks and heaps of stones rabbits have shelter, and are not much in burrows. 1397. Mr. Buchanan.'] A couple of years ago a Committee that sat on this question reported that they were strongly of opinion that the most frequent cause of the failure to destroy rabbits, and the consequent public dissatisfaction, was the evident unfitness of many of the officers, and whose previous history furnished a record of failure in other walks of life. Are you of opinion that that applies to the state of affairs as they stand now in your district ? —Yes, decidedly. I know men employed as agents that I would not give tucker to. I would not have them about our place. 1398. When the previous Eabbit Act was in force the County Councils had power to take action in regard to rabbits. Was there any case in the South where rabbits were bad, in which the Council did take any action ? —I am not aware of any Council taking action in regard to rabbits. 1399. It was stated that the reason for not taking action was that the Councillors themselves were the greatest delinquents ?—I do not think that is correct, then. 1400. In the event of big districts being placed under Boards as matters stand now, do you think that the members whose properties are badly infested with rabbits would take sufficiently stringent action ?—I do not think there would be much of what you hint at. There might be a little, but I do not think it would be a dangerous thing. 1401. With regard to the unoccupied Crown lands, if the Government were to offer some extended tenure under lease at a peppercorn rental, or even, where there is no chance of that, to give a bonus not exceeding the cost of killing the rabbits, do you think it would be taken up ?—The country I refer to is not worth occupying even at no rent, and is not fit for putting stock on at all; so that it would not be • necessary for the Government to pay for keeping down the rabbits unless they could get the country settled. 1402. As to rabbit-netting, how would that act in the case of snow?— The rabbits are not much up in the snow, as a rule. Ido not think wire-netting would be suitable in high country. It could not be kept tight. 1403. Son. Mr. Menzics.] What do you consider the great difficulty in the way of eradicating rabbits ?—The rapidity with which they breed, and the quantity there is of them. 1404. You have said you could keep the numbers down ?—We can keep them down better than we could at one time. We can keep them under control.