Sorting the fences could be key to stopping rabbits
THE current debate about rabbit control is very timely — rabbits destroy pasture and native plantings, ringbark mature kanuka, and support flourishing populations of feral cats, stoats and ferrets.
But everyone is ignoring the elephant in the room. Hundreds of thousands of kilometres of socalled rabbit netting (41mm hex) in New Zealand is not rabbitproof for the simple reason that juvenile rabbits can walk straight through it for the first month to six weeks of leaving the burrow.
So, no matter how diligent individual landowners may be in rabbit control, every spring they are reinfested from adjacent properties.
Yet farmers, Doc and regional authorities continue to spend millions of dollars each year on nonrabbit proof ‘‘rabbit netting’’.
At present, the only option is to use 25mm mesh, which is more expensive and smaller than necessary. We need to encourage a manufacturer to produce 35mm mesh which would solve our problems, then it would be possible to divide and conquer the rabbit menace. Andrew Penniket
Wanaka
Council performance
WHEN it was announced that the Dunedin City Council had been given a D or DD pass by LGNZ, it was ecstasy all round except for Cr Lee Vandervis.
Instead of all this excitement, what Mr Cull should do is get all of his councillors on a bus together with their buckets and spades, and take them out to Warrington Beach.
Let them all see how it has changed over the last 50 years. It would give them all some thoughts on sea rise, and next consult the Otago Harbour Board re their tide tables which have been kept for about 125 or 130 years, showing that there has been no more than about a 180mm rise, more or less, over those 130 years.
Then he and his council could carry out some meaningful planning for the city. Calvin Oaten
The Gardens .....................................
BIBLE READING: For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and selfdiscipline. — 2 Timothy 1:7.
ALL the articles I am reading make it sound as though a capital gains tax is a new thing.
I can emphatically state that this is not so as I have just paid more in CGT than I earn from my only source of income, which is national superannuation.
I have been living in rental accommodation for several years and purchased an old house to renovate and sell. I owned no other property. I got lucky and made some money on the sale. I had to fill out an IRD form with details of cost price and sale price, and the IRD informed me that there was a tax liability, which I queried.
There was no escape; I had to pay the CGT.
All the information regarding CGT is on the IRD website if anyone is interested in checking the details.
Les Tubman
Oamaru