REMOVAL OF GORSE

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 180, 28 April 1931, Page 8

REMOVAL OF GORSE

Clearance on the Hills There has been a good deal of talk of late about certain of the works given to the unemployed under scheme No. 5 being useless. This view, however, is not. held by the director of parks, Mr. J. G. MacKenzie. “Gorse is not only an eyesore on the hills round about Wellington, but it is always a serious menace to property in the dry season through being the means of spreading fire,” he stated in an interview with “The Dominion.”. “You may sec in any report of the Fire Board in the late summer and autumn the great number of gorse fires which thc-brigade has been called upon to suppress in order to save property. That sort of thing would never occur if the gorse was thoroughly”cleared up on the hills surrounding the city, as was done 20 years ago in Dunedin. “We have done a certain amount of gorse-grubbing each year for some time past, but have not had the means of undertaking, the extinction of the pest, but now we have the chance of getting some of it grubbed out of existence it should scarcely be for the workers to complain.” Mr. MacKenzie stated that he would be employing a large number of men again to-day under No. 5 scheme, but how long the work would last depended upon the Government.