48 FARM VERMIN, HELPFUL AND HURTFUL, 



A lesson as to the truth of this is to be derived from the 

 position the rabbit has taken in Australasia, where it has 

 developed and increased with such strides that the animal, 

 which was primarily introduced in Australia, Tasmania, 

 and New Zealand for the purpose of use and profitj is now 

 regarded in these colonies in the light of a curse rather than 

 a blessing. In such numbers has it multiplied that 

 a large reward has been offered to anyone suggesting 

 a remedy for its subjection, if not for its complete 

 annihilation. English legislators showed their appreci- 

 ation of the fact that ground game must be put 

 down with a strong hand by passing the Ground 

 Game Act in 1880, an xAct for the better protection 

 of occupiers of land against injury to their crops from 

 ground game. This measure was, no doubt, an outcome of 

 the Select Committee on the Game Laws in 1S73. This 

 Committee, after the evidence brought before them, came to 

 the following conclusion concerning ground game : 



That the principal, if not the sole, cause of mischief to 

 crops is attributable to rabbits and hares, and that the time 

 has arrived when legislative protection, given to these 

 animals by the Game Laws, should be withdrawn ; and that; 

 since there is no difficulty in rearing and feeding such 

 animals on enclosed ground or in confinement, the wants of 

 the nation could be supplied in this way." To sum up, it 

 was recommended that rabbits and hares should be taken 

 out of the fostering protection of the Game Laws, and that 

 no licence should be required, in respect of taking, buying, 

 or selling them. 



The Ground Game Act of 1880 allows every occupier 

 to have a right, inseparable from his occupation, to kill 



truly astonishing. It breeds seven times in the year, and generally produces eight young 

 at a time ; from which it is calculated that one pair may increase in the course of four 

 years to the ama2ing number of one million two hundred and seventy-four thousand 

 eight hundred and forty,' etc., etc. I fancy that Bewick has been the father of a good 

 many marvellous statements of the prolificacy of rabbits, and that this is one of them." — 

 Editor. 



