Medal the Importer Received The doubtful honour of introdueing the first rabbit into Australia, commonly attributed to the late Mr. John R. Collison, has been disputed by Mr. C. J. Thatcher, who contends [that his father alone was responsible for the deed. The rabbit has since cost Australia millions of pounds.
The elder Mr. Thatcher was a sailor who roamed the, seas in the old days of the sailing ships. Among. other duties he was travelling agent fof the Acclimatization Society, which sought to introduce ints Australia animals not indigenous to the country.
About 1863 certain sporting resi dents of Victoria became wearier of existing diversions, and scoured the Iand for something fresh to Kill, Some one remembered that the coursing of hares and rabbits had been a sport at home, and applied to the society for an importation of the animal.
The society, in its innocence, saw no harm is granting his requests, and Mr. Thatcher set out with his emigrants in the sailing ship Relief.
Not one of his first batch lived to reach Australia, Three times he made the voyage with his cargo of rabbits, and three times he fa in reaching Melbourne with the rabbits alive.
By this time the Victorian sports-mon had found diversion elsewhere, and My, Thatcher finally turned his rabbits loose in the bush, to become the greatest pests that ever infested continent, Mr. Thatcher was presented with bronze medal designed Edwin Landseer, the animal painter by the grateful inhabitants of Victoria to commemorate' the introduction of the rabbit into Australia, On one surface is grouped all the animals which Mr. Thatcher w: responsible for bringing into the country, including the stag, Hama, ostrich, oat, swan, and pheasant, asides the "devastating rabbit.—"Daily Express,"
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.