Nassella Tussock

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24742, 6 December 1945, Page 4

Nassella Tussock

Nearly 12 months ago the Hon. B. Roberts, Minister of Agriculture, met at Waipara the Combined Counties Nassella Tussock Committee, to inspect areas infested with Nassella tussock and to discuss with the committee means of exterminating it. The urgency, of the matter was emphasised to the Minister and he, in turn, promised immediate consideration and long-term action. A statement yesterday from the chairman of the Combined Counties Nassella Tussock Committee (Mr J. W. Earl) showed that nothing has come of this promise. The bill that was to be introduced this session to deal with the problem has been set aside, because items in a party programme count for more than a national need, and must wait till next session. In the minimum interval of another 12 months, thousands more acres are certain to be infested with the weed and put out of production. Mr Earl's statement, a model of restraint, simply records the facts in which official delay and inactivity are exhibited.. The comment spared in it may be expressed here. The facts are discreditable to the Minister and his department and, in a degree only less, to the four other departments associated with his on the inter-departmental committee. The Minister, in particular, has crowned in this business his own achievement, already conspicuous, in the sphere of political futility. Nassella tussock is not the limited concern of the farmers in the affected areas; it is a national problem, of the same kind though not yet on the same scale, as erosion. Thousands of acres have been lost already. Every year thousands more will be invaded and lost; and every year the loss will tend to be larger —until action is organised as' it must be. The member for Kaiapoi, his Minister's apologist, told the House that the answer to Nassella was good husbandry. If labour were abundant and cheap, it would still be pointless to exhort farmers to tackle this wide-fronted scourge, flying on the wind, with grubber and plough. When labour is scarce and dear and the farmers are far behind in their maintenance, the exhortation is a joke' too bitter to enjoy. Mr Roberts is not helped by the member for Kaiapoi, or excused. He realised a year ago, or said he realised, that this was a problem and a task beyond the individual farmer's capacity; indeed, beyond any duty to be expected of them. But it is Nassella that has advanced, not the Minister. He has not moved at all. There is no room in the Department of Agriculture for pieces of statuary.