EXPENDITURES IN AUSTRALIA. 



43 



Section 2114 of the laws of Utah for 1890 authorized the county- 

 courts to offer bounties for the destruction of jack rabbits and certain 

 other injurious animals. On September 1, 1893, a bounty of 5 cents 

 per scalp was placed on rabbits by the court of Boxelder County. This 

 rate was maintained until January 28, 1895, when it was reduced to 2 

 cents per scalp. The county clerk reports that up to December 31, 

 1895, bounties had been paid on 111 coyotes at 50 cents each, while 

 more than $500 had been expended for rabbits, as follows: 



Table shoiving expenditures foi' Bounties in Utah. 



Number 

 of scalps. 



Boxelder Jan. 1-Sept 1, 1893 . . 



1)0. ! Sept. 1, 1893-Jaii. 28, 



Do I Jan. 28-Dec. 31, 1895. 



716 

 9,179 

 2,863 



Kate per 

 scalp. 



Amount 

 expended. 



$14. 32 

 458. 95 

 57.26 



Bounties represent the only expenditures made by counties or States 

 in this country for the destruction of rabbits. As shown above, the 

 totals, including the State bounty of Texas, which was paid on several 

 other species of animals, aggregate about $100,000, an amount which 

 is insignificeut when compared with that spent in Australia. 



EXPENDITURES IN AUSTRALIA. 



The common rabbit of Europe [Lepus cunieulus) was introduced into 

 Australia about the year 1864 at Barwon Park, near Geelong, Victoria.^ 

 In the course of a few years it spread over Victoria and westward into 

 South Australia, crossing the Murray Eiver in 1878. The following 

 year legislative action for the destruction of the pest was inaugurated 

 by South Australia, and the example was soon followed by Victoria, 

 New South Wales, Xew Zealand, Queensland, and Tasmania. No less 

 than 19,182,539 rabbits were destroyed m JSTew South Wales alone in 

 1887.2 But in addition to the direct payment of bounties, the govern- 

 ments of the colonies have expended large sums for poisons, for experi- 

 ments on various methods of destruction, and have built several thousand 

 miles of rabbit-proof fences. As shown by the following table, the total 

 amount expended up to 1888 was £1 ,093,890 (more than $5,000,000) in 

 addition to £96,264 (nearly $500,000) for fences. 



'According to Hon. Jamea M. Morgan, formerly United States consul-general at 

 Melbourne, rabbits were first introduced in western Victoria about 1860, for the 

 purpose of sport. (Consular Reports for Dec, 1886, XX, p. 482.) 



2 Circular on Rabbit Destruction. Committee New South Wales Comm. Pastoral 

 and Agr. Ass., Jan., 1888. 



