Chapter III.

As my knowledge of the stoat is rather imperfect, I will give [unclear: a] extracts from leading newspapers. Extract No. 1.—"The [unclear: stoat] the Continent is a very precious article of commerce. In Britain [unclear: th] skin is of little value. In July, 1827, a gentleman of [unclear: Cathe] near Glasgow, having shot and wounded a stoat, observed that page 11 [unclear: escaped] into the hole of an old stone wall. He was led to make an [unclear: examination] of the place, when he found a couple of leverets [unclear: mmolated]. The place also contained two young partridges entire and a pheasant's egg unbroken. Besides these, were two other leverets in a state of putrefaction; at the extremity of the retreat lay the dead stoat. Naturalists state that the stoats seldom eat their plunder until putrefaction sets in, and this fact would seem to bear out the impression." Extract No 2.—"The fears that the stoats and weasels would attack the young lambs and poultry, have, so far, not been realised; no traces of them have been found near dwellings, and they seek out the wildest and most inaccessible parts of the country * * * * Stoats are very hardy. They never touch a dead animal the second time; they will kill scores in a day, and if they corner a lot in a burrow or nest, they cease not till every one is Bed. And our information is that if they should begin to attack lambs or poultry, they can be easily caught and destroyed."

If the above indicates the state of our information on the matter, it will be seen that it amounts to pure ignorance, the negative accomplishment that bequeathed us the rabbits. What a consolation it is to know that they can be easily caught and destroyed in the "wildest nd most inaccessible parts of the country!" I cannot offer as much information about the weasels, but the reader will lose nothing by that, Tim tells me, however, that to establish the weasel we will have to bring the mole, at least, and may be the peewit and partridge, and that a big healthy rabbit is too much for a weasel. The ones you heard about the weasel catching were sickly or wounded. But here are the results of 125 years of this acclimatisation business in Jamaica:—

Against all this intolerable deal or mischief, we have only the [unclear: si] countervailing advantage of the temporary subjugations of the [unclear: wh] bellied rat by the mungoos. From this it will be seen that, [unclear: tho] much has been done in Jamaica, much may yet be done in the [unclear: way] acclimatisation of new animals.

Now there is the experience of three or four generations, and [unclear: tho] we may discern a little fun in this account of it, the facts of [unclear: the] may be all correct and should indicate to us the difficulty of the [unclear: ma] and the caution we should use in dealing with it, also how [unclear: easily] may "shoot arrows in the dark," and that there is a darkness [unclear: aro] where those arrows will fall that may take generations to [unclear: dispel,] far as the suppression of the rabbits is concerned, the elements. page 13 failure already exist. The three species of the Mustelidæ are mortal enemies in their wild state, and will kill each other's young as well as those of the rabbit, so that while they are having civil differences, bunny will be attending to business. Climatical considerations prevented the importation of the mungoos. But when the rabbits get up Auckland way they will bring along the mungoos, that will kill a ferret in preference to a rabbit.

The majority of pasturalists will attach but little importance to this, because they are well aware that they cannot control their pastures while there are any rabbits at all. It must be, that they have not the means to fence, so that they grasp at a theory like a drowning man at a straw.

Tim seemed primed and ready this evening, and the moment I appeared, he asked me:—"Do you believe that the rabbit was created at Eden"? "Of course I do. I profess to be orthodox in every particular." "Then what was the ferret created for?" "As a curse when the rabbit fell, I suppose, or may be it was to keep the rabbit from eating all the grass." "Then, what was the wolf's mission?" "Ah the Devil must have sent the wolves." "That is not orthodox," said Tim, "and I think that the rabbit's 'natural enemies' were absolutely necessary to prevent them from degenerating; and without natural enemies and the law of improvement, instead of all the beautiful things there are, the world would be peopled with a lot of rubbish. Look how carefully you used to cull your ewes; well that is just what the ferrets have done for the rabbits. They went round them for thousands of ears, leaving only the able and artful to survive. That is why we find them so hard to deal with to-day. If ever a rabbit was smitten with insanity, tuberculosis or small-pox, a ferret like a health officer, came along and removed it, or quarantined it by leaving a scent around it that no rabbit would go near; thus doing a double kindness to the rabbits by preventing contagion, and the transmission of an hereditary faint. And look here Sir! I have often thought that it would have been a great advantage to humanity if something had gone among it and served it the same." "But you must remember, Tim, that it was never intended that the rabbits should appropriate all the food, and that, if it was not for their enemies they would have had the world to themselves." "Yes, sir, but when we were dipping the sheep the other day, you said, that they were 'only rats of sheep' compared to what they used to be, and no doubt, if you were to leave them entirely to themselves, those that could stand starving best would be the fittest to survive, and in time might develop a useless race that would make it hot for the rabbits."

So it seems, natural enemy, as we have it, is altogether a misnomer, The real natural enemy of any animal, is that which removes its food:—the rabbit of the sheep; the ferret of the cat; and the weasel of the stoat. If we could get that sort of enemy for the rabbits their time page 14 would be up. And if there was not too much of a twist in it, [unclear: and] much time in view of it, I would be inclined to recommend [unclear: someth] in that line. If we had introduced some simpler creature to [unclear: st] out the rabbits, and then brought the mustelidæ, we might have [unclear: h] chance, but now we may as well throw up the sponge or [unclear: start] fencing. Our sheep runs in New Zealand, in their barrenness [unclear: of] resources than rabbits, are as opposite as the poles to the native [unclear: ha] of the mustelidæ; and our evidence is against the probability of [unclear: t] being able to subsist exclusively on rabbits (supposing they could [unclear: c] them), so that when they finish up the few larks, lizards, and [unclear: w] they will have to look around a little; and if transportation [unclear: de] alizes them as much as it demoralized the rabbits, we will have a [unclear: p] kettle of fish. When they cull the rabbits sufficiently, they [unclear: will] the others so hard to catch that they will not be above dining on [unclear: a] sheep. From this it is only one step to live ones, that may be [unclear: fi] or helpless, and another step to the sheep in camp or fold, [unclear: where] ferrets may surprise them and feed on them alive like the keas. [unclear: It] latter took twenty years to learn their horrible habits. In England ferrets had no temptation to attack sheep, and few opportunities learning to do so. They had abundance of other resources which absent here, and in their stead, there is an ever recurring temptation to attack helpless or fallen sheep. Fancy, a starving ferret [unclear: co] upon of these. I can readily imagine that the lizards [unclear: and] would be left in peace for the future; that with abundance [unclear: of] from an animal that had no cunning to avoid them, our [unclear: ferrets] soon become as famous as our keas and rabbits. And it is quite [unclear: pos] that they have already commenced on the sheep, and that [unclear: many] seen their work, but blamed it on the gulls.

Every lark may be worth its weight in gold for all that we [unclear: kn] the contrary. And a lizard in every tussock, as of old, seems adapted to check such pests as the turnip fly. We have often [unclear: he] how many insects a sparrow or starling will eat, but we [unclear: have] heard of how many spiders they destroy, nor of the many [unclear: other] insects whose mission it may have been to keep their own world [unclear: in] No matter how insignificant items they may appear, they are world all respect when nature chose them for their present places.

New Zealand was the most wonderful country for its [unclear: freedom] noxious things; but now we have at least a dozen mischievous [unclear: in] We have rabbits and small birds, with a promise of larger ones by by, and in the mnstelidæ's power for evil we have the promise greater curse than all the rest put together. We have just [unclear: be] the Otago Society liberating crows. There was a report [unclear: here,] times, that they introduced the birch itch and rechristened [unclear: it,] nobody believed then, but now, in view of their latest exploit [unclear: it] seem very becoming. We may remember a Wellington [unclear: farmer] evidence before the Commissioners, "that it paid him to [unclear: keep] (in place of paradise ducks) solely for reducing the [unclear: grasshopp]. page 15 And I am confident that these would, even now, be considered a pervious evil but for the overshadowing influence of the rabbits. At present the grasshoppers take an enormous quantity of grass, but as they do so when grass is abundant, the loss is not apparent, though it exists to a very large amount. Everyone will admit that the nakedness of our pastures, the total absence of dead grass and the consequent exposure to sun and frost, is in itself a serious evil. To this and the grasshoppers so largely assist our cursedness in burning, that would have no hesitation in choosing between birds with wire-[unclear: etting] and rabbits with ferrets.

The idea of the ferrets exterminating the rabbits is almost too simple to require discussion, but I will offer the following proposition: [unclear: ay] that a ferret requires a rabbit a week to live upon—52 rabbits a year, (it is asserted that "a stoat will kill scores in a day "), and if the ferret is to continue to exist, there must be rabbits enough to breed food for next year. So we may say that a ferret requires 100 rabbits to live upon, without any wanton destruction. Then the moment it reduces its stock below the required amount, it threatens its own existence. A dissentient may say, "a stoat would kill the lot in week and then die of starvation—be both extinct, and a jolly good [unclear: ddance]." My answer would be, that we brought the stoat from the [unclear: ame] place as the rabbit, where they lived and throve together for Thousands of years, where the Ground Game Act had to be passed for [unclear: he] abatement of the rabbit nuisance; that there is a balance [unclear: between] beast and its prey as immovable as Mt. Cook or Taranaki; and that [unclear: astead] of only needing 100, they would be far more likely to need 1,000 each, ana only do the culling.

All this will be taken as mere chaff compared to "known facts" honcerning the success of ferrets at Kaikoura, &c.

Extract No. 1, from the Evening Press:—"There are thousands of [unclear: rrets] at Kaikoura, where some of the runs have been entirly [unclear: cleared] rabbits." Extract No. 2, from the same paper:—"A few stoats will keep all the rabbits over a large area scurrying about, neither [unclear: eding] nor breeding." If this be true, how have the rabbits existed on earth? And do not those thousands of ferrets imply a great many rabbits. Of this we got evidence in a telegram of a little later date.

"Kaikoura, Jan. 25, 1887.

Before Mr. Whitefoord, R. M.

"Five informations were preferred against parties, for neglecting to [unclear: troy] rabbits."

We have information from other sources that one of those Court [unclear: ses] was for land adjoining a run "entirely cleared of rabbits," and without a ferret or rabbit proof boundary.

It is not only the Evening Press that repeats such assertions, for [unclear: hey] have been endorsed by the Chief Inspector, and echoed from all page 16 parts of New Zealand. It appears to have escaped notice [unclear: th] "fact" of any land, not isolated, being entirely cleared [unclear: of] implies an impossibility, because the ferrets would need to [unclear: stay] land to protect it when they had nothing to eat, instead of [unclear: foll] up the rabbits and scattering them back on the cleared land—[unclear: c] of Maori hens.

The poor weka was once very plentiful in New Zealand, [unclear: but] the ferret, it disappears like a shadow. It used to kill mice, [unclear: rat] young rabbits, and when it saw a ferret, it chased it like a [unclear: rat,] course gave up the ghost.

If it is a fact that there are thousands of ferrets at [unclear: Kaikours] very few rabbits, it is evident that the ferrets must have some to live upon, and from what I know of them I am [unclear: perfectly] that there must be plenty of dead sheep there, or else the [unclear: ferret] already commenced on the live ones. But of course we will nothing of that from Kaikoura.

What station owner or manager would have the temerity to that he had more deaths from ferrets than rabbits, and that be the two he was very anxious to sell out. Oh no, the first we will of it will be a mild disapproval of ferrets, like that from [unclear: the] Club. Would it not become anyone, before he saddles [unclear: himself] nuisance, to make a few simple experiments by placing rabbit ferrets in an enclosure, and watching the results, taking care [unclear: to] natural conditions as nearly as possible?

Even in a small enclosure where the rabbits cannot get out of of the ferret, his good opinion of ferrets will receive a [unclear: serious] But in a large enclosure where the rabbits can scamper [unclear: away,] find that his ferret will die of starvation before it [unclear: catches] rabbits. But if he ties a sheep to represent a fallen one, [unclear: he] that the ferret will not die of starvation. And if he turns in a ewes in the lambing season, he will find the ferret and rabbits [unclear: flou] Then the experimenter will be able to estimate the [unclear: utility] Government's distribution of young ferrets, at 8s. or 10s. [unclear: ea] have been turned out of cages by thousands, under the [unclear: special] mendation of the Chief Inspector and the endorsements of [unclear: his] dinates. Anyone with a thought to spare can see at a [unclear: glance,] natural enemies killed the fittest and the best, Nature [unclear: made] investment in them; which she never did, for "on all her [unclear: inver] a dividend must inevitably be paid."

So that now we begin to see that, like the Jamaicans, we [unclear: ma] huge mistake, and then a huger one to cure it.

The ferret was successful against the Maori hen, because [unclear: it] unnatural enemy; and in Australia there are hosts of [unclear: un] enemies that ought to have been successful against the [unclear: rabbits] thing could have been:—There are dingoes, native cats, [unclear: tig] iguanas, snakes and numerous poisonous ticks and insects. [unclear: The] page 17 [unclear: wk] is 8ft. in expanse of wing; the whistling eagle would attack a [unclear: rrier]; the great goat-sucker keeps the Australian bush almost free [unclear: om] rats, and in New South Wales the blue-bottle tick will kill a dog; [unclear: t] the rabbits are triumphant there. Then what is the use of our [unclear: oling] with a few weasels and stoats which are in reality the rabbit's [unclear: ends]. We are only losing valuable time and giving away our prestige, [unclear: encouraging] less favoured countries to sap our markets.