Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1960-03-11

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but he missed the hunting
of small game. It cost a
considerable sum to ship the
little rabbits, but Mr.. Austin
thought Of it as a good IN
vestment. The rabbits would
have more rabbits and, in
about a year, there should
be enough to hunt.
HE OPENED the box and
the "a rabbits scampered of,
hopping wildly through the
brush. Thomas Austin had
pretty good hunting next
year. And the next.
Three years later. the au-
thorities Of Australia began
to refer to rabbits as a pest.
The more the rabbits multi
piled. the more frantically
Austin and his friends
worked to exterminate them.
In the first six years, he
killed 10000, but the little
bobtailS were miles ahead Of
him. He wrote to the gov
eminent and confessed that
there must be about 10000
still at large. They were
moving north and west out
Of the Province Of Victoria.
At Glen ALIVE, John Rob-
ertson charged a hunter with
shooting a rabbit on his
property, and had him ar
rested. The prisoner was
fined 10 pounds. Within two
years, Mr.. Robertson's ranch
was ruined by foraging rab-
bits. and he spent 5000
pounds trying to exterminate
them.
Around 1888. the rabbits
outnumbered the people of
Australia. The government
of New South Wales, adj
jacent to Victoria on the
north. spent SIS million in
six years killing scores Of
millions Of Robertson's rab-
bits. There were more. They
were now in Queensland and
South Australia.
Those governments were
forced to add a tax burden
for the eradication Of rab-
bits. The pests skirted the
great natural desert in the
center Of Australia, and
chewed their way through
farms and pasture land. The
cost Of control ran into the
hundreds of millions.
The ranchers found that
sheep grow bigger and fatter
in Australia, so they began
to raise sheep. To find graz
ing land, the ranchers tried
to cut the forests down, but
found that this was too ex-
pensive. So they burned the
forests, not realizing that
only five per cent of the great
sub-continent had trees.
Today. Australia imports
almost half Of all its lum-
Der, and pays heavily to have
it shipped in. The sheep
turned out to be close
cropping eaters, and they ate
not only the grass, but all
the plants they could find
including the roots. In a
short time. great areas Of fine
Australian soil were being
blown to sea in dust storms.
AT THE TURN of the GEN.
fury, man became frightened
over his ignorance of ma
ture, and natures controls
The great province Of West
ern Australia feared the rab-
bits so much that the gov
eminent built a 2,OOO-mile
fence to keep them out It
cost $2.5 million, but the Of
flcials felt that it was worth
1t. Then they found out that
some of the rabbits were on
the other side of the fence.
In the United States.
there were 100000 buffalo
roaming the prairies when
the white man stepped on
Plymouth Rock in 1920. The
Indians hunted them for
food and for clothing, but
did not kill indiscriminately.
The white man decided 10
kill these buffalo. If he could
not eat them. he could skip
them and sell the pelts.
There were another half
million antelope and elk and
wild horses on the ranges,
They would have to go too
tcopyriRht 1850, King Features
Ayndicata TnR