90 MAMMALIA 



The initial difficulties in getting rabbits introduced, the terrific 

 success that at last crowned the efforts made, the unexpected ruin 

 and destruction which they caused, and the gradual return to normal 

 conditions, makes the history of their introduction one of the most 

 interesting in the annals of acclimatisation. 



Mr H. B. Martin in 1884 states that in various parts of the 

 Auckland district the rabbits have become almost or quite extinct 

 from natural causes; tuberculosis was also believed to be present in 

 the Wairau Valley, where the rabbits were beginning to decrease 

 before the present Act was in force. 



In a discussion which took place in the Legislative Council on 

 4th July, 1883, the Hon. Mr Chamberlain said that rabbits were 

 formerly numerous on Motuihi and Motutapu, and on Flagstaff Hill, 

 but they had now become extinct. 



Mr Edgar T. Stead, writing me as late as 25th July, 1919, informs 

 me that: 



in the Wills Valley and the Upper Haast, to the north of Lake Wanaka, 

 the rabbits were at one time, — say ten or twelve years ago, — absolutely 

 swarming. When I was there six years ago I was told that the rabbits were 

 completely gone from the Wills Valley, and I personally observed that they 

 were leaving the Haast. On the flat below the Burke hut there was still 

 a fair number, but above that on the open stretches of river flat there was 

 not one, though there were deserted warrens in all suitable localities. There 

 are many places in Canterbury where rabbits have become scarce in the 

 last ten or fifteen years, — ^more places still where the case is vice-versa, — but, 

 as you remarked in your paper, there were only some races of rabbits 

 that spread badly, and we do not know that the above-mentioned places 

 were inhabited by the virulent races. In the Haast River case we do, for 

 the rabbits had spread over the range from the famous Central Otago 

 stock. It is quite possible that the country going "rabbit-sick" is only 

 part of a cycle, but the subject is well worth investigating. 



In the House of Representatives on ist August, 1883, Captain 

 Mackenzie said that a competent authority assessed the actual loss 

 to the Colony through the Rabbit Plague at £1,700,000 a year. 

 Mr W. C. Buchanan said that the loss for the past ten years was 

 assessed at ten millions sterling. The question of importing a 

 disease from the Falkland Islands was discussed at the same time. 



I was at one time under the impression that in this new country, 

 where the causes which kept them in check in their original home 

 were wanting and there seemed to be nothing to arrest their develop- 

 ment in any direction, there might arise new varieties of rabbits with 

 modified habits. Particularly did it seem likely that colour variations 

 would thrive unchecked, and the traveller passing through certain 

 districts in Central Otago is certainly surprised at the number of 



