MARCHING NORTH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 251, 22 October 1937, Page 11

MARCHING NORTH.

RAGWORT MENACE PROBLEM.

MINISTER'S MISGIVINGS,

(By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Thursday. Marching north like an invading army was the picture drawn by the Minister of Labour, Mr. Armstrong, when speaking in the Jiotiso of Representatives of the ragwort menace in Southland and Otago.

The Minister was detailing the help given to farmers through the Employment Promotion Fund, one example being that of ragwort eradication. T nless this wa* grappled with it would drive thousands of farmers off their land, he declared.

Tile Minister said thia weed was coming down from Rotorua into the fertile Innds of the Waikato. Farmers found it difficult to finance the work of eradication because there wa* not only the cnst of labour to provide, but also eight or nine shillings' worth of sodium chlorate every day for each man. The Employment Promotion Fund came to their assistance and the local bodies Also helped, with the result that nearly nil the wages were paid on the farmer*' he half. "South Island people seem to have gone to sleep over this menace, but it is growing all the time," warned the Minister. Mr. Hamilton. Leader of the Opposition, who is a Southland farmer, interjected placidly, "It ha* been there for 20 years." The Minister: Growing and spreading the time. Mr. Hamilton: Not In the South. The Minister added that there were 3<W m on employed on the wage subsidy •J'steni in destroying the weed.