80 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, 
anthrax, to show the enormous value—from the monetary point 
of view only—of a scientific attack of such problems. Lest the 
readers of this note think that the value of such investigations is 
overstated, we need only refer them to Prof. Huxley’s address to 
the British Association in 1870 (“ Biogenis and Abiogenesis,” 
Critiques and Addresses, Art. X., p. 218), for a confirmation of 
this view. 
When the expense incurred by our farmers and runholders in 
restraining the excessive multiplication of rabbits is considered, 
and when we add to this the dead loss in stock, wool, crops, &c., 
and incidental expenses, we run up an immense total, against 
which any items we can place to the credit side of the account 
are a mere bagatelle. It is quite clear, too, that £5000, or £10,000 
even, would be well-spent money were it to result in any scheme 
for reducing or exterminating the pest. Were an able specialist 
secured for two or three years to study and report on the whole 
question, giving him carte blanche to experiment on any scale 
he considered necessary, the great probability is that any expense 
so incurred would be recouped to the country a hundredfold. 
Such a man could be obtained in England, France, or Germany. 
The question of obtaining the requisite funds for such a scheme 
would be considerable, and the raising of them might be attended 
with a little difficulty, but this would not be insuperable. It is 
a matter which concerns our farmers and runholders most closely, 
and one which they could manage either through such a society 
as the Otago Agricultural and Pastoral Association, or by co- 
operation dmong themselves. It might be undertaken by the 
Government, but the official machinery moves slowly in this 
Colony, and is always more or less in favour of running in 
grooves. Were a small and energetic committee of leading 
agriculturists to take up this scheme, and associate with them- 
selves Prof. Parker, whose knowledge of European scientific men 
and ways would be of great use to them, the probability is that 
the most valuable benefits would be obtained. The scheme is 
advanced for what it is worth; if it leads to any useful results, 
the object of the writer will have been secured.—G.M.T. 
Se 
NEW ZEALAND UNIVERSITY—DEGREES IN SCIENCE.—“The 
Queen has been pleased to direct Supplementary Letters Patent 
to be passed under the Great Seal granting and declaring that 
the Degree of Bachelor and Doctor in Science granted or con- 
ferred by the University of New Zealand shall be recognised as 
academic distinctions and rewards of merit, and be entitled to 
rank, precedence, and consideration in the United Kingdom and 
in the Colonies} and Possessions of the Crown throughout the 
world, as freely as if the said Degree had been conferred by any 
University of the United Kingdom.”—* Nature,” 13th Decem- 
ber, 1883. 
