DESTRUCTION OF RABBITS IN NEW ZEALAND. 331 
A narrow view of this question is therefore quite inadmissible. 
We can but look at it from the point of view 1 suggest—viz., with 
an atlas of the globe before us. Hitherto we have regarded the 
matter too narrowly in New Zealand, and M. Pasteur’s remedy, 
strange to say, is too narrow also. 
With regard to rabbit-fencing: I do not object to rabbit- 
fencing, but I consider it a waste of money. The best and most 
sure fence is the egg of the tape-worm upon the grass. The 
calculation for each dog is as follows: 1 x by 100 tape-worms, 
x by 100 segments, x by 1000 ova. 
As to the expense of the remedy, the beauty lies in its cheap- 
ness. Supposing the owner of each run in the South Island got 
but two of my diseased rabbits, and fed those rabbits to two 
hungry dogs in his pack, and then went steadily hunting over 
his land, the moist lands would quickly become infected with the 
tape-worm eggs. The rabbits would eat them and get fluked, 
and soon the whole pack of dogs would be infected. The dogs 
would then infect the whole of the lands. Whether the ferrets, 
stoats, and weasels also carry the worm about I cannot say. I 
firmly believe they do; but I have all along been quite certain 
that the tame dog does so, and I think the cat also. Neither 
Sir James Hector nor Professor Thomas are able to tell me 
anything about this; so I can but be guided by my practical 
experience. This is why I object to rabbit-fencing. I wish free 
open fences for the dog and natural enemy to disseminate the 
tape-worm ova. 
With regard to the danger of the sheep becoming fluked, I 
have never heard of a single case of the sort in the Wairarapa 
during the six years the disease has evidently been silently at 
work amongst the rabbits. Nor do I think that the bladder- 
worm of the rabbit can possibly infect the intestines of the sheep. 
Each order of nature has its own check. This can be seen from 
the fact that there are some two hundred and fifty different sorts 
of tape-worm. The rabbit might carry the proper sheep-fluke 
about in occasional instances, but I do not think that the sheep 
could possibly carry the rabbit-fluke about. At any rate, my 
sheep have been running upon my badly-infected, rabbit-fluked 
lands, and no instance of death has yet occurred. 
I need scarcely point out the severity of any tape-worm 
disease. A few years since seven hundred thousand pigs died 
