36 president's address 



sums to stem the advance of the rabbit, with very little success; 

 for, at this date, not a single Station from the South Australian 

 border, in the west, to the 146th parallel, or forming a line from 

 Brewarrina on the north and Gnndagai on the south, was free from 

 rabbits. 



After crossing the Murray, the rabbits travelled steadily north- 

 ward, spreading east and west as they advanced, at the rate of 

 sixty miles per year; and crossed the Queensland border, at a dozen 

 different places, in 1887. Here they met the western rabbits, which 

 had moved on from South Australia towards the Warrego River, 

 and joined forces in Queensland. 



Tn 1888, the New South Wales Government appointed a Rabbit 

 Commission, the members of which met in Sydney, and considered 

 the various projects brought forward to exterminate rabbits by 

 introducing contagious diseases. Dr. Watson, of Adelaide, sug- 

 gested the importation of Rabbit Scab from Germany. Drs. Ellis 

 and Butcher carried out a number of experiments to destroy the 

 rabbits with an indigenous disease at Tentonalogy, near Wilcannia ; 

 and Pasteur offered the microbe of chicken-cholera from Paris. At 

 the conclusion of this conference, the Government offered £25,000 

 for an approved satisfactory specific to destroy the rabbits. In 

 1890, the New South Wales Government passed a New Rabbit Act, 

 superseding the Rabbit Nuisance Act of 1883, under which it was 

 estimated that £1,543,000 had been expended in fighting rabbits. 

 This money was first obtained through a direct tax upon all land- 

 holders, but the sum collected was so inadequate, that it had to be 

 supplemented by £503,786 from the consolidated revenue. The 

 natural enemies of the rabbit were studied, at home and abroad; 

 wild cats did a little ; monitor lizards are specially protected under 

 the Stock Act, on account of their known habit of eating rabbit, 

 but, though they do eat young rabbits, they are deadly enemies to 

 the opossum and other harmless creatures, and are carrion feeders. 



Someone imported 120 mongooses, but they, fortunately, died 

 out, and the experiment was not repeated. The fox has even been 

 regarded as a friend, by some of the large landholders, because, 

 while rabbits are plentiful, he leaves the young lambs alone. 



