RECONSIDERATIONS 369 



days, had now to be diligently searched for rabbits. They were always 

 to be discovered on the northernmost extremities of northern-running 

 spurs, never on the southernmost extremities of southern - running 

 spurs. 



On Tutira the plague has from the first been kept in check by con- 

 tract, a most satisfactory system to all concerned. The duration of the 

 original contract, which has been from time to time renewed, was for 

 five years, a great proportion of each year's payment being withheld 

 until the termination of the periods. Responsibility, moreover, for all 

 fines and penalties that might be levied on the owner by the Hawke's 

 Bay Rabbit Board was also accepted by the contractor. He had a 

 personal interest, therefore, in the matter. One of the most practical 

 proofs indeed of the rabbit's determined northern movement was the 

 anxiety with which he watched the runs south of the countryside over 

 which his agreement extended, and his indifference to lands north of 

 Tutira. These were times when the rabbit was still an unknown 

 quantity, when his advent was still viewed with little short of conster- 

 nation. I knew, therefore, and sympathised with my contractor's un- 

 easiness. Riding with him, I used to hear many aspersions as to the 

 carelessness of the poisoning, trapping, and shooting work of southern 

 neighbours. As to the conduct of stations north of Tutira he cared not 

 a jot; their rabbits were not on his mind. As he phrased it, "the 

 brutes are through us now and will never return." They were moving 

 north. 



Under the contract system described it may be supposed that no 

 considerable number of rabbit congregations for long remained un- 

 discovered. When, however, from time to time one such was first found, 

 it did not seem to have increased beyond certain numbers. Whenever 

 litters had become fit to move forward, apparently they had moved 

 forward. There had never occurred multiplication to the limits of the 

 local food-supply. These settlements, usually oases in manuka thickets, 

 have beer again and again trapped, shot, dogged, dug out, and poisoned ; 

 the rabbits inhabiting them annihilated. They are, in fact, caravan- 

 saries, favourite halting - places on the line of march, utilised by 

 successive relays of rabbits, again and again restocked by fresh bands 

 passing northwards. 



Other illustrations of the resolute pursuit of a certain chosen line, 

 and of the migratory fever possessing both old and young of the breed 



2 A 



