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THE ZOOLOGIST. 
THIRD SERIES. 
Vou. IX.] DECEMBER, 1885. [No. 108. 
THE RABBIT-PEST IN NEW ZEALAND. 
By Rosprerr S. Hawkins. 
A e@reat deal of uncertainty has existed in the Wairarapa, 
Wellington Province, as to the possibility of keeping down 
Rabbits by Ferrets only. The uncertainty has largely been 
caused by writers who, professing a knowledge of the country 
in which Ferrets have been tried, assert that the result has 
been unsatisfactory. The question is one of such vast im- 
portance, no less to myself than to the whole of the settlers in 
the Wairarapa, that I resolved to go over to Marlborough and 
ascertain the facts by personal inquiry and sight. I propose to 
state as concisely as possible the result of my visit.* 
It is well known that Messrs. F. and F. G. Bullen took the 
lead in the introduction of Ferrets into the Kaikoura, Marlborough 
Province, and that it is the fact of their success that is so per- 
sistently denied. I went at the end of May last to their house, 
and during a stay of ten days received the most cordial hospi- 
tality. Messrs. Bullen’s house is on the sea-coast, about five 
miles from Kaikoura. There are about 2000 acres occupied 
with the house and homestead lying between the rivers Kohai 
* The colony of New Zealand was previous to 1876 divided into nine 
Provinces, and in that year the county system was adopted, the former 
division being retained as “‘ Provincial Districts.” The writer resides in the 
southernmost Provincial District (Wellington) of the North Island, and the 
journey which he describes was made to the northernmost Provincial 
District of the South Island. 
ZOOLOGIST.—DEC. 1885. 2M 
