The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1882-07-01
A Pest Of Rabbits,

New Zealand has suffered grievously
from the ravages of these gentlest Of
furry foes. About twenty years ago s
colonist brought seven rabbits from the
old country to his new home at Inver.
cargill in the southern isle. 1t was
thought that to turn these adrift on the
bleak Sand-hills along the coast could not
fail to prove benefit to the colony.
For some years this answered capitally,
and the colonists enjoyed excellent
shooting on the links Gas such seaboard
is called in Scotland) But ere long the
rabbits increased to such an extent that
they cropped every blade of grass and
even devoured the roots, which alone
bound the light sand-hills and prevented
them from blowing over the better soil
inland. Very soon this evil occurred,
and the land was greatly injured. Then
the farmers on the seacoast began shoot
ing and trapping in earnest; but by this
time some more rabbits had been i'm
ported to Otago, and from these two
centers the mischief rapidly spread.
Considering that each rabbit breeds
eight times a year, and produces an ay.
erage of six young at each litter, it is
easy to perceive how rapid must be their
increase. On the other hand their foes
are few, the settlers in the interior living
eight or ten miles apart-a lonely life,
in truth, where perhaps half a dozen
men herd the tloeks which range over
fifty thousand acres. 1t became evident
that these shepherds could never cheek
the progress of the evil without assist
ance, so men were hired to ferret, trap,
shoot or worry the invaders. These
men travelled with large packs of
dogs, numbering from one to two
dozen. They were paid at the rate of
I'd. skin, twas, however, soon found
that the sale of skins fetched less than
they COST while the presence of strange
dogs disturbed the sheep and often re-
suited in their being worried. The sheep.
runs being in general tracts of crown
land, merely rented by the farmer for
limited term of years for the purpose of
rearing stock, it was found in many
cases not to be worth the expense of at
tempting to cope with the mischief One
cure after another was tried, such as
stopping the burrows with cotton-waste
saturated in bisulphide of carbon. but all
were successfully given up as useless
efforts to meet so widespread an evil.
In many cases it was found that the land
could no longer support one-fourth OF
its former number of sheep, so the holders
were absolutely compelled to throw up
their leases and abandon their runs. The
extent of the rayages could hardly be
credited were it not for the cut-and-dry
statistics of the rabbit nuisance commit
tee. | may quote a few extracts from
the evidence of many gentlemen own
ing large sheep-runs in the provinces of
Otago and SouthCanterbury. Many begin
by stating how incredulous they were at
first that rabbits would even take to the
new country sufficiently to afford them
sport. All too quickly their eyes were
opened. For instance, in South Canter-
bury, Messrs. Cargill and Anderson
killed fifty thousand rabbits by poison
a year ago, but in the following spring
their sheep-run was just as densely
peopled by them as though not one had
persisted. Mr.. Kitchen states that he
kept nearly a hundred men working as
rabbit-killers for four months, and sue.
ceeded in clearing his land. Now they
are worse than ever. Mr.. Rees says that
he killed $4,000 last year. and his en-
ployer, Mr.. R. Campbell, expended
$4,000 in one year in attempting TO keep
down the pest on his runs of 1853 900
acres. Still the plague spreads; and the
whole land from Waitaki to Foveax
Strait is more or less infested with rab-
bits. Many districts are just vast war
rnv xUyI,t nl, . IL l.
sheep at all. Mr.. R. Campbell alone
has been compelled to abandon $50. 0OO
acres. Chiefly in Southland and Wal
lace Counties, and on the North Maria
Lake and Greensboro Valley several
other sheep farmers have also been
forcedto abandon runs of from Is, 900 to
$4,000 acres. Many estates, though less
seriously injured than these, have still
suffered SO greatly that their value is
immensely deteriorated, Eight runs,
which formerly brought in rental of
e. 900 per annum, now let for E170.
The Burwood run is instanced as one
which used to carry $4,000 sheep, but
now barely provides food for "a 200. In
1873 the total number of the sheep in
colony was upward of. IL, 000,00O; in
1879 it was reduced to about IL SOC, 900,
and this decrease, though now consider
ably checked. has continued. The loss
on the exports of wool and tallow is esti-
mated at f500,00 per annum. On the
other hand, in 1879, there were exported
from New Zealand upward of 5000, 00e
rabbit skins-value GAG, 759-and in the
following year upward of 100000 rab-
bit skins sold for f66, 976. Gentleman's
Magazine.
The Silesian Gazette reports hail
| storm i'm VILLAGES of that nrovinna tba,