PRESIDENT'S ADDltESS. 37 



All sorts ol' mechanical methods have been tried — digging out, 

 suffocating by forcing bisulphide of carbon fumes into the bur- 

 rows, trapping, the burning up of all logs and stumps, and finally 

 wire-netting fences. Under the regulations of the present Act, 

 poisoning lias been enforced on all rabbit-infested land, the local 

 Boards having power to summons and fine neglectful landowners. 



The erection of wire-netting fences has been encouraged. Queens- 

 land, New South Wales, and West Australia have spent large sums 

 in erecting barrier-fences, some hundreds of miles in length, to 

 check the spread of the rabbits. In New South Wales, the State 

 rabbit-proof fences total 1,322 miles, erected at a cost of £69,885 ; 

 private owners have put up 81,235 miles of wire-fencing, at a cost 

 of £4,611,427; while the Pastures Boards own another 348 miles, 

 which cost £14,459. 



The Under-Secretary of the Department of Public Lands, in 

 Queensland, informs me that the range of the rabbit in that State 

 is as follows: — "The Warrego district, the western part of the 

 Maranoa, with the Carnorvan, Gregory North, and Mitchell dis- 

 tricts more lightly infested." The estimated length of all the rabbit- 

 proof -fences, at the end of 1911, was 19,303 miles, including the 

 Government Border fences of 732 miles; and the expenditure by 

 the Department for that year, in dealing witli the rabbits, was 

 £24,699. The total cost of operations since the Boards came into 

 force is, Government expenditure £842,478, and by the District 

 Boards and Run-owners, £893,977, or a total of £1,736,455. This, 

 however, does not include the outlay of the runholders on the 

 destruction of rabbits, which runs into a very large amount of 

 money. 



The rabbits entered the eastern boundary of Western Australia 

 from South Australia, and the vanguard of the army reached 

 Euela in 1898. They are now spread over a large area, from the 

 South Australian border to the Barrier Fence, about 180 miles 

 from the coast, that runs from the Great Australian Bight, and 

 strikes the Indian Ocean about 100 miles north of Condon. Be- 

 tween the Barrier Fence, and what is known as the No. 2 Fence, 



