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Story: Rural workers

Rabbits

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Rabbits

A rabbiter, his dog and his horses pose in front of a fence strung with rabbits in Southland in 1904. By the 1870s rabbit numbers had exploded and their grazing meant that fewer sheep could be run. Station owners countered by employing rabbiters who snared, trapped, shot and poisoned their quarry.

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Otago Daily Times

Reference: 15 July 2006, p. 103

Permission of the Otago Daily Times must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Carl Walrond, Rural workers – Itinerant workers, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/17204/rabbits (accessed 24 June 2026).

Story by Carl Walrond, published 1 March 2009.