Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Rabbit Question.

To His Excellency Edward Albert Stone, Administrator of the Government in and over the State of Western Australia and its Dependencies, etc., etc.

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY, Your Commissioners appointed by His Excellency Sir Alexander Campbell Onslow, Knight, the late Administrator of the Government of this State, to inquire into the rabbit question, to consider the best means of effectually dealing with the rabbit plague, and to devise some measure to stop the advance of rabbits into the settled portion of the State, having made careful and diligent inquiries, by the examination of witnesses (whose evidence is attached hereto), and from all other available sources, beg to submit for Your Excellency's information the following Report:—

1. They consider the following matters to be fully established from the evidence brought before them:—

(a.) That rabbits in considerable numbers are, at the present time, in evidence in many places in Western Australia, and are frequently being discovered in fresh localities between the South Australian border and as far West as Coolgardie, and as far North as Broad Arrow.

(b.) That, although in some of the localities where they have only recently been noticed they are as yet in no great numbers, they have at Eucla, and for some miles to the Westward, increased to the extent of thousands, and, according to some evidence, to the extent of millions.

(c.) That there is every reason to assume that rabbits will increase and multiply in this State to the same extent as they have done in other parts of Australia, there being nothing in the pasturage or conformation of the country to warrant any other conclusion. No false comfort should be derived from the fact that because in the past small isolated colonies of rabbits have not obtained a hold on the country, they will not do so, for it is an established fact (evidence of which we have taken) that, in other parts of Australia, the identical localities in which rabbits existed for many years without increasing became afterwards hopelessly infested.