I6 
The Queensland Naturalist. 
March, 1923 
Davenport. This Bill was read a first time only, the 
motion for second readiaig lapsing. 
Jn the following year another Hill was {broitght 
forward, again by a indvate inemiber — tlie lion. E. J. 
Stevens. At that time the danger of inva.^ion fi-om the 
south seemed remote, and the object of the Bill was to 
prevent the spread of rabbits then in Queensland and to 
stop the furtlier introduel ion of them. Ohe or tw'o 
voices \dere raised againsit tlie Bill as beifng too stringent. 
During the dehate in the Legislative Lomicii one mem- 
ber said: "To tjrovlde that tlie whole 
colony containing millions of acres should b,e debarred 
from iintrod'U'ci'ng one of the most domestic, and cer- 
tainly the most innocenl. of ciU animals was really too 
absurd.” This Bill becanie hnv as ‘‘The Ealibit Ac1 of 
f8S0. ” It prohi'hitetd the liringing of live rabbits into 
the country, made provision as to the manner in which 
rabliits could be kept in coirfinmeii't, made tlie turning 
of them loose an offence, and authorised any jierson to 
destroy a straying ralbbit. 
youth Australia ami Tasmania ^verL‘ the first Ans- 
tralian States to legislate against Rabbits. Bills lieing 
jias'sed in 1879. Queensland and Victoria followed suit 
in 1880. and Xew South Wales in 1883. In the last- 
mientloued State the matter had, indeed, been raised in 
Barliament in 1881 by ]\lr. E. Quin, but he was not taken 
seriousdy, it being suggested that he 'Avould do better to 
bring in a Bill to exterminate fleas" (‘29. ]). 21 ). 
In 1883 and 188-1 the altention of Parliament was 
called by lion. E, J. Stevens to the i'a[)id approach of 
rabbits to the Queensland border from the sontli, and 
in the latter yeai* an expert sent bv the Government 
reported that the rodents were fn'.iy 200 miles from the 
border. 
Reports, of the a(h'ance of tlie pest continuing to 
come to hand tlie Government, in the following year, 
again despatched an exjiert to determine the ])ositio.ii of 
the rabbits, with the view of deeidiing the best point at 
which to commence the erection of a wire netting fence, 
v'hich had for some years’ been regarded in the southern 
States as the mosl effectuHl method of st 02 )])ing rabbits. 
The re])ni't was. to a certain extent, reassuring. It stated 
tliat the nearest rabbits Avere about 130 miles away, Avhile 
to the south-west, in So-rtli Australia, they were not 
nearly so^ elos’e. 
