NOXIOUS WEEDS AND VERMIN

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22167, 10 August 1937, Page 10

NOXIOUS WEEDS AND VERMIN

CONTROL BY RABBIT BOARDS PROPOSED

CONFERENCE REJECTS REMIT

A proposal to make a recommendation to the Government giving the rabbit boards power to take over the control of all vermin, such as deer, goats, and pigs, and also conferring on them the control of the handling of noxious weeds within their districts, was lost after considerable discussion at the annual conference of South Island rabbit boards yesterday. The proposal was placed before the conference in the form of a remit from the Waihopai Rabbit Board, which suggested that the work should be paid for out of the rates levied by the different boards, with a £ for £ Government subsidy. _ ~ , , The Waihopai Rabbit Boards delegate to the conference, Mr H. Y. Monro, said that the recommendation was reasonable, as the Government had now started to subsidise the destruction of deer and wild pigs, -tne destruction of vermin should be handled by the rabbit boards, and a £ for £ subsidy should be provided by the Government for this work. _ Mr G. H. Andrew (Wairau) said that at the present time the Government was taking over s the : , destruction of doer and goatssntirely.on. its own and was doing very gcod work, • In opposing the remit, he said that the boards would be better to confine their whole attention to the. destruction of rabbits alone. . The rabbit boards did not coyer the whole of the South Island, said Mr E. C Gardiner (Motunau). The association should not take over work which should be done by the local authorities. In Canterbury and the West Coast alone there were more than. 2(1 local bodies, and of these only about six had dealt with gorse as a noxious weed, said Mr B. Grant, chief inspector for the Department of Agriculture in Canterbury He wished it to be made clear that in the case of many weeds which were on the second schedule of the Noxious Weeds Act, it was left to the local bodies to declare such weeds to be noxious in their areas. Gorse, in particular, was not noxious unless declared so by the different local authorities; and most cf these bodies had taken no steps to declare it, a weed; The proposal to give the rabbit boards control over all noxious weeds wou d serve only to confuse the issue, as power was already given local authorities to .take over the administration of the act in their own areas; However, very few of. these local authorities had availed themselves - of this provision. The local authorities should take more interest in the matter, as it 1 was alarming to see the way in which noxious weeds -were spreading through the country.