FLESH FOOD FEOM MAMMALS. 77 



40,000 skins were brought to the railway station, there 

 to be despatched to Port Chalmers for shipment to the 

 London market. Those skins were brought from Strode 

 and Fraser's Earnscleuch Station, Clyde. These gentle- 

 men employ eighteen poisoners on the station, while six 

 men with pack-horses (known as " packers ") are engaged 

 in conducting traffic between the Home Station and the 

 rabbiters' camp in the ranges, carrying . out poisoned 

 wheat and necessary supplies, and returning with the 

 rabbit skins. Two men and a clerk find full employ- 

 ment at the station in making up poisoned wheat, and 

 fixing up and despatching the bales. A waggoner is 

 engaged in conveying wheat to the Home Station, and 

 bales of skins from there to Lawrence. Some days pre- 

 vious he brought down 22,000 skins ; on one day, as 

 we have said, he had 40,000, and at the station, when 

 he left it, there were other 40,000 in readiness to be 

 despatched to the railway ; and still there are no symp- 

 toms of the traffic diminishing. Messrs. Strode and 

 Fraser supply the rabbiters with poisoned grain at the 

 rate of 8s. per 100 lbs., and purchase the rabbit skins at 

 2d. each. The men are earning from 20s. to 30s. a day, 

 and more men would be taken on, but cannot be had. 

 Some of the so-called " unemployed " were offered work, 

 but declined it, preferring their chance of loafing on the 

 industrioiis along the road. While these particulars 

 refer to Eamscleugh Station, it is only fair to mention 

 that the other runholders are pursuing similar measures 

 in concert, and by arrangement arrived at in public 

 meeting. 



South Australia has gone in largely for preserving 

 rabbits for shipment to Europe. At Kapuna Factory 

 the rabbits are caught at night, disembowelled on the 

 ground, and then carried to the company's works. Here, 

 one after another in quick succession, heads (subse- 

 quently boiled down for jelly) and legs are removed, and 

 the skins puUed off" in a twinkling. The bodies are 

 slightly salted (to remove the blood) and then washed. 

 Thirty men are employed by the company, and more lads 



