The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-03-15 00:00:00

THE RABBIT IN AUSTRALIA.

In this country the rabbit has ceased to be an object
of interest (remarks the Morning Post). The Ground
Game Act, at the cost of a good many disagreements
between landlords and tenants, has been making short
work of him, and probably the time will come when
he will take rank with the Swanage crocodile and the
Blean wolf among the extinct fauna of Great Britain.
Lord Granville once described his worst fault as that
of being several inches too short, and probably a good
many other sportsmen have thought the same thing as
the white tail has disappeared down a burrow unharmed
by the contents of a couple of barrels. In truth, the rabbit
has afforded excellent sport to successive generations
of English men and boys; and although Pall-mall
despises him as food, Whitechapel is of a different
opinion, and he is so largely consumed in all the
poorer quarters that the existing scarcity, and con-
sequent rise in price, have been the means of depriv-
ing a good many people of almost their only luxury.
It is curious to contrast the condition of the rabbit in
England and in Australia. Here, as we have said, he
is being very rapidly extinguished by advancing civili-
sation. There, he has things all his own way, and is
constantly taking possession of fresh territory. His ad-
vances were the subject of earnest consideration by the
Convention of Representatives of Australian Colonies,
who recently met at Sydney, and the figures given as to
the extent of his depredations are astounding. In New
South Wales alone, it is calculated that from six to
eight million acres are infested with rabbits to such
an extent as in some cases to lessen by more than one
half the pasturage, and, consequently, the production
of wool, and though the Colonial Government
have a staff of four hundred men constantly em-
ployed in making war on the "feeble folk"
in every possible fashion, including suffocation
underground by bi-sulphide of carbon, the rabbits
are constantly on the increase. In one district four
proprietors of stations are stated to be spending,
between them, no less than £20,000 a year on the
work of destruction, but even this expenditure only
suffices to keep the plague within reasonable bounds
without extirpating it, and if the outlay were reduced
the runs would have to be abandoned to the rabbit.
In the last eighteen months they have spread more
than 200 miles up the east bank of the Darling River,
and this extension is becoming ruinous to many
stockowners. it seems that traps, poison, dogs,
and guns are unable to cope with the evil, and
ferrets and mongqoses are being imported and
turned down. But it is doubtful whether the
rabbits will not multiply and spread so much faster
than the carnivora as to make this remedy of little
avail, while it is by no means certain that the latter
might not develop a taste for poultry and young
lambs instead. The rather horrible notion which
seems to afford most prospect of success is the in-
troduction of some epidemic disease which would
affect only rabbits. It is stated that on one par-
ticular estate they have been largely reduced ,by the
prevalence of a special form of tuberculosis, and it
is suggested as possible that some such infection
might possibly be cultivated and spread. It is
proposed, therefore, that the Australian Colonies
should conjointly offer some large reward, say of
£50,000, for the discovery of any means that, at a
reasonable cost, shall within three or five years clear
from rabbits some given district of wide area now
infested. As it is computed that the five Colonies
lost in the course of last year no less than £2,800,000
from rabbits, it is evident that even the large sum
mentioned would be a very small price to pay for an
effectual remedy for the pest, and the -amount of
reward would probably have the effect of setting a
large number or the wisest brains in the world to pit
themselves against the rabbits. We are, however, by
no means certain that the rabbits would not beat the
experimental philosophers.

HINT TO THE MOTHERS OF ENGLAND.—LittIe boys
are too often like syllabubs; they require a deal of
whipping before you can serve them out.
ATHLETIC SPORTS FOR LAmEs.—Jumping at con-
clusions; walking around a subject; running through
a novel; skipping full descriptions.
A GRINDING MONOPOLY.—A society of united street
organists.
BoviNn INGRATITUDE.—A vegetarian who was
dodging an infuriated bull behind a tree, exclaimed,
"You ungrateful beast, you toss a vegetarian who
never ate beef in his life 1 Is that the return yo'
make ?"