railway shed, and yesterday our represen tive himself discovered a large and ap irently very distressed rodent sitting at Lβ entrance to the No. 5 Harbour Board Led. He .told off a small boy to watch hile he went for a stick. Meanwljite, how 'er, the animal succeeded in crawling into pile of sacks of grain, and was not seen jam. Another sickly rat was killed in one ' the other sheds yesterday afternoon. There seems to be no way of getting rid I the plague of rats which infest Lyttelton. rhen the grain sbeds were empty they lived ider the wharves. "Now the sbeds are full, id are infested with tliem. The No. 5 iarbour Board shed contains, piles [ sacks of grain thirty feet igh, pro/bably holding thousands I tons of corn, so that it is -easy > see how unlikely rats are to take poison ith such a wealth of better Btuff at their jmmand. They have evacuated some of ie sheds, however, where it was made too ot for them. In one shed the numbers lught were first ten, then five on two morn igs running, then two, and finally one jlitary rat, since when ■none at all have een seen. The men say they have gone p town, which will be pleasant Teading or thd people of Lyttelton. The stone reastwork, known as Gladstone pier, is lid by Dr. Symes to be the most dangerous lace "in the case of an outbreak. The rhole of the breastwork is a harbouring round for them, and if they once became afected it would be very difficult to eradi ate the disease, because of the impossibility f getting at them. Dr. Symes suggests he filling of the interstices between the tones with cement at 5s ajard. Heesti nates that it would cost £750. Probably he expense would be double this sum, how- The precautions that have hitherto been aken by the authorities have been not only .bsolutely inadequate, but ridiculous, especi ,lly regarding the shipping, bo far there tppeara to have been no attempt to improve v them, and in.any case it may simply be ocking the stable door after the horse is IN THE BOROUGH. As far as the.borSugli of Lyttelton itself 9 concerned, the Council seems to have iwakened to its responsibilities, and efforts fe re being made to clean the place up. 