§ MR. M. J. KENNY (Tyrone, Mid)asked the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, If the attention of the Colonial Office has been called to the following paragraph, which appeared in The Pall Mall Gazette of Saturday 8th May:—
§ "The Rabbit Plague in Australia.
§ "The latest attempt to exterminate rabbits in Australia ended in failure. It was a truly infernal device, namely, the importation of rabbits suffering from the rabbit scab from Europe, in the hope that the contagion would spread among the Australian rabbits and ultimately kill them off. Professor Watson, of Adelaide University, was granted six months' leave of absence, in order that he might purchase diseased rabbits in Europe. He bought two dozen thoroughly infected with animal and vegetable parasites, and embarked on the Caledonian steamship with them; but, unfortunately for the experiment, they all died of sunstroke before reaching Aden, and the attempt has consequently failed. He has, however, ordered a fresh supply, and he is still in hopes that rabbit scab may be successfully introduced;" if the statements contained in the above are true; and, if so, whether the Colonial Office will make such representations to the Government of South Australia as may induce them to adopt some other method of mitigating the rabbit nuisance in their Colony?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. OSBORNE MORGAN) (Denbighshire, E.)I am a little surprised that the hon. Member, who is, I believe, an ardent Home Ruler, should have asked me this Question. The Colonial Office has no information on the subject of the paragraph in question; and the extermination of the rabbit plague in South Australia is essentially a matter which concerns exclusively the Government and Legislature of that Colony. Under these circumstances, the Secretary of State for the Colonies is not in a position to make the representation which the hon. Member desires, or to interfere in any other way with the action of the Colony itself.